A Good Look
by DunderMifflinite
Summary: There are far too many obstacles in place for Holly to even think about telling Artemis how she feels for him. Then, she is offered a chance to see her future, and she see that all of her worries are for naught. But how to convince Artemis? Sometimes all it takes is a hostage situation for people to come together.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

**The Sozzled Parrot, approximately 7 years following the end of **_**The Last Guardian**_

The original Sozzled Parrot was itself so low-tech that it would have survived the "Opal Catastrophe"-as it was now referred to-of seven and a half years ago, except for the fact that its proprietor, Barnet Riddles, had kept many stolen weapons chock full of Koboi technology hidden in the basement. As a result, the old pub was not spared the large explosions and general mayhem that occurred all over the world that day. In fact, both buildings on either side of the rundown tavern had gone down, too. Though that could have been because they too were housing high-tech (from a human standard) weaponry for sale on the black market. It was a rough neighbourhood.

Riddles had been relatively lucky in terms of his own physical safety, however. He had been liasing with a new human business connection, brokering a nice deal so that cheap liquor would continue to flow in his establishment. Or at least that's what he had gone to the empty warehouse for. Things hadn't gone so well. He had been cornered by human law enforcement officers. Fortunately for him, the state-of-the-art handguns carried by two of the senior officers in attendance on the bust had exploded, taking their two owners with them. In the confusion that ensued, Riddles had escaped captivity-and the death that would have occurred had he simply been wiping down the bar in the Parrot with his usual greasy rag.

Once the dust had settled, and the world had started rebuilding, Riddles had rebuilt with it. He moved into a slightly newer building, and with no human or fairy criminal record (thanks to the complete wiping of all computer records), set to work again providing a haven for all fairy thugs, con artists, and general criminals. His life's work.

The new Sozzled Parrot indeed soon attracted the same questionable clientele, and had quickly become just as grimy. But the liquor flowed, and humans stayed away. Even the LEP knew nothing of its existence.

Mortilla Rumby was a sprite down on her luck. The very fact that she was sitting at the bar of the new Sozzled Parrot was enough to tell anyone that. Her clothes were grubby enough that she thought nothing of leaning her elbows on the filthy bar. She had made her way slowly to Miami from southeast Asia, but her wings were tired, and didn't work as well as they used to. She had been living among the humans in Ho Chi Minh City, shamed away from associating with the People due to her dependence on human alcohol. Her magic had been sapped by her constant state of drunkenness. She hated the miserable existence she eked out in a haze of alcohol, yet couldn't stay away from it.

She had thought her salvation had arrived in the form of a young human boy, with his gargantuan companion. In exchange for chemically-induced sobriety-the irony was lost on Mortilla-all she had to do was allow the boy to look at her Book. And then she might finally have the chance to get her magic back. She hadn't cared so much for living again with the People-she had completely alienated all of her family and friends, and knew she would still be laughed at and mocked by those who knew what she had been-but she wanted her magic. Once that happened, she would figure things out. She would find a way to make her money, and then could live out the rest of her alcohol-free days in air-conditioned luxury.

She had been disappointed. First, by the excruciating pain she had gone through at the hands of the boy. The chemicals working their way through her bloodstream had caused agony beyond anything she had ever felt. She could barely move-even breathing seemed to cause the torture to increase with every breath. She vowed, as she writhed in her little shelter on the streets of Ho Chi Minh, that if she ever saw the boy again, he would pay.

Even when the pain stopped-and how long it took she never found out-her hatred for the boy gnawed at her stomach. Or perhaps that was just the multiple ulcers she had developed through her alcoholism that she had no magic to heal.

She was able to make it to a site where she could perform the Ritual. She actually had to perform it twice in a row, as the first time her newly-refilled stores of magic had been depleted in healing the many sores, decaying organs, and other health problems she had developed. When she was fully healed, and fully loaded with magic, she felt great-though a look in a nearby pond had shown a reflection that was quite worse for wear. That was her second disappointment-though she subconsciously decided to blame that on the boy, too.

Her third disappointment came in the lack of money-making opportunities she had encountered as she had made her way across the planet. Her name would be mud down in Haven or Atlantis-her alcoholism had lost her many a job, and a good reference would be impossible to find. She could hardly hold down employment in the human world, either, with her green skin and the wings on her back. No, she knew she would have to come by her fortune in less...legitimate ways. As she had made her way from place to place, she had engaged in small, petty crimes. The guilt had challenged her at first. In fact, it seemed to be getting worse. And she had lately been noticing some strange impulses that felt more powerful the more crime she committed.

She had decided that to rise above all of that, she needed to do one big job. One big job that would set her up for the rest of her life. Then she could give up crime—which, Frond knew, she took no pleasure in. One big job, where no one got hurt.

So, after nearly a decade of wandering, she had at last come to the Sozzled Parrot, to find any fairy who shared her dreams of ill-gotten largesse and would help her in her quest. But after having been here several hours, nursing a cold cup of human coffee (the thought of alcohol now made her nauseous), she had started to lose hope. The first few fairies she had approached had heard of her, and immediately began mocking her for an incident in her past which had unfortunately been accidentally caught in the background on a fairy newscast on-location in Haven City Centre. The background had, sadly for Mortilla, become the main focus of the newscast as…well, her antics were a bit hard to miss. She had successfully put the Incident (as she called it) out of her mind years ago-and hadn't been too impressed when all of the embarrassment was brought back in one fell swoop by an insensitive gnome.

She had been about to leave in a huff, when Barnet Riddles had kindly invited her up to the bar for a drink. She put down a few human dollars and ordered a coffee. She was a bit disturbed to see that her funds were dwindling to nothing. She might have to mug another Mud Man by _mesmer_ tonight, she thought.

Her annoyance-turned-despondence had been interrupted when two raucous elves burst into laughter from a nearby booth. She had been able to hear everything they were saying, though had tuned most of it out. For some reason, she was beginning to feel uncomfortable with how they were talking-though she couldn't explain it, she almost wished they would talk in shorter sentences.

However, her interest was piqued when she heard one of the elves, apparently named Jove, say to the other, "You know how you make money in this world, Frewl?"

Frewl responded, "How is that, Jove?"

"I don't know, that's why I was asking you." They both dissolved into more laughter. "All kidding aside," Jove said in a slurred voice-though his words were undermined by more giggling, "I would say a good ol' fashioned bank heist."

"Naw," Frewl replied, waving his hand dismissively. Unfortunately, his intoxicated state caused his small gesture to be amplified enough to knock his drink over. He didn't notice this, as the glass was almost empty. "The way to do it is extortion. Nice, clean threats. Blackmail. You find something good on someone rich, you're set."

Jove slammed his hand on the table, rattling Frewl's downed glass. "I've got it—kidnapping. _Kidnap _someone rich and you're set."

"Say, who do you think would get the biggest ransom?"

Jove scratched his balding head. "You know, I think a member of the Council. They're usually pretty rich and they're important. The government would hand over a lotta gold for one of their own."

"Hmm," Frewl said. "I think you might get more if you kidnapped a bunch of kids. People will shell out when there are kids in danger. They'd practically set up a telethon. The money would be astro-…astrom…-astromical! Though of course," Frewl continued, puffing himself up as if he were an expert on the subject, "all good kidnappers know that you never hurt your meal ticket. The cops'll work harder to track you down if you hand over damaged goods when you get your money."

"Yeah," Jove replied, "Like you've ever actually kidnapped anybody. You just watch too much TV."

As the two elves started arguing, Mortilla tuned them out. Kidnapping, she thought. The idea had merit. After all, she wanted a lot of money, and didn't want to hurt anyone. She just needed to find someone who would fetch a good price. She thought back to Jove and Frewl's conversation, and it was as if a light bulb turned on over her head. Astronomical was good…but double astronomical was _better_. It was so crazy, it just might work…


	2. Chute 92

_**Chute #92, 6 months later**_

Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon had worked details that were more boring than the one she was on now, but she currently was at a loss to remember any. It's not that it was a day without action—in fact, even as she casually leaned up against the wall of the small maintenance tunnel that ran horizontally from the main vertical chute, there was a dramatic vehicle chase going on miles away. A runaway curry smuggler was eluding the authorities at a high speed. She would have given nearly anything to be in on the action.

But no, Holly had been assigned to work Chute #92. So boring, no one had even bothered to give it a nickname like they did most other chutes. And what was she doing in Chute #92? A speed trap. Chute #92 was a route people rarely travelled—and as a result, when people did travel it, they tended to 'put the pedal to the metal', to use a human phrase.

Holly would usually question the wisdom of assigning an officer of her experience to so menial a task; however, today she was riding with a rookie—a new recruit fresh from the Academy. A gnome named Gev Polter. He was okay—but seemed a bit jumpy. Tunnel traffic duty was probably the best thing for him until he stopped flinching at the sight of neutrino fire. Holly had heard about him getting some singed eyebrows in the Academy. She guessed whatever had happened was probably the source of his current fears.

Polter may have been a decent recruit, but he certainly wasn't much to talk to. If you're going to be spending long hours sitting in a maintenance tunnel off a seldom-travelled chute, you want to be with someone you can have a good conversation with. With Polter, conversation had been stilted and awkward at best. She had tried asking him about his Academy days, his childhood, even the last movie he watched—but try as she might he had given the shortest possible answers to her questions.

As she idly checked her neutrino—for what, she didn't know—she couldn't help but wish Artemis Fowl was stuck in the tunnel with her. He drove her crazy sometimes, but since they had become friends it was a fond kind of crazy. She had a deep respect for him—not just his intelligence, but the way he had changed. She knew he somehow attributed this change to her.

"_I was a broken boy_, _and you fixed me. Thank you."_

She still shuddered when she thought of that time, when he had sacrificed himself to stop Opal's insane plan. The six months after had been one of the darkest times in her life.

Now, seven-and-a-half years later, they were still best friends. He routinely did consulting work for the LEP, which brought him (and the faithful Butler) down to Haven at least once a month. On the other hand, it had seemed much longer than that since he was last down. Things have been too quiet, Holly thought. _I guess we must be due for another shake-up down here in Haven soon_.

Just as she was going to try the topic of crunchball with Polter, a loud popping noise sounded through the maintenance tunnel and Holly drew her neutrino as fast as lightning. Polter, conversely, almost jumped out of his skin.

Holly's neutrino was placed back in its holster when she saw that the popping sound had emanated from No1's sudden appearance in the tunnel. "Hey, No1—when did you learn how to do that?" Holly asked, smiling.

"A new trick," the demon said, cheerfully. "Teleportation is something even Qwan can't do. But don't tell him I told you that."

"Well, you are certainly a sight for sore eyes," Holly replied. "Polter and I are about to go nuts here. No action all shift so far." She glanced over at Polter—he still had his hand on his chest, catching his breath. "So, No1, what brings you to the bustling Chute #92?"

Suddenly, he looked shy. "It feels like _forever _since we last talked. And…and I was hoping I might be able to get some advice from you."

Holly was taken aback. "Advice on what?"

No1 hesitated, but then launched into a speech. "You see, there's this female demon I've seen around—well, okay, I actually crashed into her on the street a few evenings ago when I wasn't looking where I was going. But anyways, I apologized and everything, but then I saw how beautiful she was, and I could barely choke out another word, even though my vocabulary is unquestionably extensive. I saw her go into Club Hybras with the two other females she was with, so I think if I go there I might be able to see her again. But I want to actually be able to say something this time. So I suppose what I am asking is—well, how do you talk to girls? Or to be more specific, how would I talk to a female demon with whom I wish to become better acquainted…better acquainted in a certain type of way?"

Holly smiled. The young demon was so earnest in everything he did. "That's wonderful, No1! Though I can't say I am very qualified to give advice about dating and love."

No1 replied, "You're my friend, and you're a female. That makes you qualified enough."

She laughed. "Well, all right. Girls…like to be complimented." She had conveniently forgotten about the fact that nearly every time a male complimented her she either punched or shoved him. "So give her a nice compliment about her appearance or her personality. For instance..." she thought furiously for a demon compliment, "you could say—'My, your armour is looking very impenetrable today. Or something like that."

No1 was paying very close attention, and nodded repeatedly. "Okay, okay, that's good. Compliment her. Right."

"And, uh," Holly continued, searching her mind for something else, "try and find some common interests. Ask her what she likes and all that."

"I can't believe you said you weren't qualified. This is all excellent advice. I'll put it into practice next time I see her." A moment of silence passed. "So, Holly, is there any lucky elf who has caught _your_ interest?"

In an instant she was almost as defensive as if a troll had suddenly appeared in the tunnel. "Why do you ask?"

No1 must have sensed her strong response. "I was only curious. I thought we were becoming confidantes."

Holly immediately felt a little guilty for her suspicion. She didn't know how to respond, but then settled on honesty. "No, there's no elf."

A normal bystander, like Gev Polter, whose heart had finally slowed to its normal rate after No1's appearance, wouldn't have noticed anything in Holly's answer. Perhaps a bit of wistfulness, but that would be a common emotion to accompany such a declaration. A normal bystander would simply think Holly lonely.

But the truth was, she was far from lonely. She had great friends— Artemis, Foaly and Caballine, No1, Butler, even Mulch. She never had to worry about having someone to talk to. The wistfulness came not from having no one, but from the fact that, while there was no _elf_, there was a _somebody_. And the very problem with that somebody was that he _wasn't_ an elf. So, whenever she found herself thinking about him in a way that was anything other than strictly platonic, she would do anything she needed to do to get her mind onto something else, to stop the thought in its tracks. Though it would be hard to argue that Artemis truly belonged to the human world—so much of his life had been intertwined with the Fairy People—there was nothing he or anyone else could do about the fact that he _was _human.

And that made things complicated.

So, Holly had made the decision to simply not think about him in _that _way. It usually worked; however, it was hard to tell her heart to slow down when she saw him, or to tell her skin to stop that pleasant tingle if he accidentally grazed her arm with his hand. Unfortunately, it seemed only her mind was on board with her plan.

No1, knowing Holly as well as he did, could tell there was more in her short statement than a simple denial, but he never got the chance to probe further. That was because Polter coughed, startling a small bat which had become lost in the chutes and had ended up in the maintenance tunnel wherein Holly, No1, and Polter were standing. The bat flew from its hiding spot in a shadow past Holly and No1, and came only a couple of inches away from Polter's face before it flew into Chute #92 and up.

Polter had, as anyone would have expected, jumped when the bat had appeared and flown by. However, he was a tad too near the edge of the maintenance tunnel. An edge which had no guardrail, as it had to be a wide enough mouth to admit a small vehicle, such as the one Holly and Polter had arrived in. And when Polter jumped, he also staggered, losing one foot off of the edge.

Holly's quick reflexes were called into action. Only a few feet away from Polter, she leaped nearer and pulled him back into the safety of the tunnel. Unfortunately, this timely effort from Captain Short resulted in her losing her own balance, and stumbling off the edge. Polter had been thrown to his knees from the force of Holly switching places with him, so he was too far away to grab her; No1 was as well.

But while Holly's mind comprehended in a split second that she would have a very long time to fall before death would come, it did not have a chance to start thinking of the things one normally thinks about as impending death looms—such things as _I wish I could have seen Arty one more time_, _I can't believe I forgot to write a will, _and _Arrrgghh!_

Holly's mind didn't have the time for such thoughts because just before they would have started fighting each other for precedence in her brain, a neat rip in the fabric of time opened and swallowed Holly whole.

She instantly knew where she was. She realized she couldn't have died yet, as her fall had not even really begun, much less ended. Rather, she felt the now-familiar, disembodied sensation of travelling through time. It did not take Holly long to figure out why at such a moment she had passed into a time tunnel. No1 had opened it to catch her when it was clear neither he nor Polter would be able to pull her back onto firm ground. She would merely need to follow the pull of No1's magic to reappear in the present, where hopefully enough time would have elapsed to allow for either No1 or Polter or both to snatch her from her free fall.

But almost gradually, Holly felt a tug to another time as well. She had no idea what period in time it was that was calling to her with such…such happiness. It could have been the past or the future—all she knew was that she felt powerfully drawn to it. She still felt No1's magic tethering her to the present, but couldn't help following the warmth that seemed to envelope her as she approached it.

_Wherever I'm headed_, she thought_, I hope this isn't some kind of a trap_.

For once, it wasn't.

**Author's Note: **thank you for taking an interest in this story. You can expect regular and frequent updates if you decide you'd like to follow along. And of course, I would be very glad if you would take a moment to review.


	3. Major Changes

The time tunnel deposited Holly onto a gray sidewalk in the middle of one of Haven's upper-class neighbourhoods. When the moment of disorientation passed and she realized where she was, she was surprised to find she was not in the maintenance tunnel.

She felt her magical tether to No1 still firmly in place—as 'firmly' in place as anything ethereal and magical could be—so decided to take a look around. She could spend a year here and it would still only feel like a few seconds in the present—or vice versa. When had she come to? And why had such she felt such a pull to this time?

She currently stood in front of a large, beautiful house, which probably wouldn't have looked out of place in a wealthy human neighbourhood. She knew where in Haven she was, but hadn't spent a lot of time there—crime didn't tend to happen here, other than the occasional burglary that occurred when the owners of these homes were away on vacation. The house, and most around it, seemed to have been built post-Opal, but she couldn't tell much more. _So_, she thought_, I've either gone into the future, or into the recent past_.

Making a mental note of the address so that she could return later to catch No1's magic back to the present, she starting walking in the general direction of Haven City Centre, carefully looking around to make sure others on the street weren't alarmed—thankfully there hadn't been anyone around to notice her pop into existence on the middle of the sidewalk. The houses eventually shrunk to more modest sizes, and then turned into shops. She spotted an electronics store up the street and hurried towards it. She saw ultra-high-definition televisions for sale in the window, and noticed one was showing the news. Looking at the date in the corner of the screen, she learned that she had travelled about six years into the future.

Though she had realized previously she might have come to the future, the confirmation that she had still surprised her. _Well, I hope I'm still alive in six years_, she thought. _And what is so great about now?_

She was spared further wondering on this topic when she heard a voice behind her say, "Hello Major. I hope you are having a pleasant day."

She had a feeling that the person was talking to her. She whirled around and saw a pixie, an LEP captain she had never met. His uniform said his name was Truncor. _He must be in the Academy back in my present_, she thought.

"May I speak with you?" he asked, sounding a bit stilted.

"Uh, yes, of course, Captain."

"Are you going somewhere? I'll walk with you to your next destination and we can talk on the way."

Holly frantically considered her response. She would sound weird if she told him she was just hanging around the exterior of an electronics store in the middle of a workday. But where was she going? Her panic led to her blurt out, "Home. I'm going home." And they started walking back the way Holly had come.

It seemed like a safe enough answer at first. But as he started speaking—and it became abundantly clear that he was only talking to her to see if she might recommend him to Commander Kelp for some temporary special assignment in the Amazon—she realized that six years could change a lot of things. Most importantly, it could change one's place of residence. She had no idea whether or not she still lived in her current flat. And she couldn't tell whether Truncor was following her lead in walking her home—as he was entitled to assume that she knew the way to her own residence—or whether she was following his lead.

Eventually, though, he stopped on the sidewalk. She had quick enough reflexes to stop only a split second after he had ceased walking.

"Here we are," he said. "Thank you for taking the time to speak with me. I hope you will take me under consideration when you make your recommendation to Commander Kelp." He glanced up at the house they stood in front of. "Major, I've always thought that you have a lovely home. I'll see you later."

"Thanks," she said, turning her gaze upon the house as well as he walked away. She was stunned to see it was the same one by which she had materialized. Thinking about it, though, it made sense that she would materialize here if it was her home. She shook her head. Now was not the time to think about the intricacies of travelling through time and space—she would leave that to people like Artemis and Foaly.

She checked to make sure Truncor had turned the corner before climbing the steps up the front of the house. It amazed her to think she had gone from her small flat to this place. It was nearly a mansion. Was the raise in salary she was going to get by advancing from captain to major that large?

She knew she should just allow No1's magic to pull her back into the time stream and towards the present. But she felt so curious. And Artemis was confident that whatever you did while time travelling had no effect on the future or past, as long as you travelled within the same time stream. Against her better judgment, almost as if she was not in control of her arm, she raised her hand and rang the doorbell. _Stupid, stupid, stupid_, she thought. But it was like she couldn't stop herself.

If no one answered, she would just walk back to the sidewalk, go back to the present, and look forward to whatever she would be doing in six years' time. Unfortunately, she hadn't really considered what would happen if someone _did _answer—at least, she didn't consider that until she had rang the doorbell. When the possibilities entered her mind—such as, if future Holly answered, present Holly might be thought of as an imposter and shot with future Holly's neutrino—she froze, listening carefully for footsteps. If she heard any she would run for cover until she saw who answered the door.

She relaxed when it seemed no answer was forthcoming. _It's probably for the best_, she thought. _I might not like knowing my future. Though if I am living in _this _house, it can't be too bad._ Holly turned around and started slowly down the steps to the sidewalk. As a result of the noise created by her own feet, she neglected to hear the footsteps approaching the door inside the house. It was impossible, however, to miss the sound of the door unlocking and opening. She panicked—she wasn't nearly ready to slip back into the time tunnel yet. All she could do was turn, halfway down the steps, to see who had opened the door.

Her eyes went wide, and her mouth fell open slightly.

It was Artemis Fowl.

**Author's Note: **thanks again for reading—as well as a special thanks to those who have reviewed and decided to follow the story. Please continue reviewing! I hope you've enjoyed the story so far.


	4. A Home

When Artemis saw who was standing on the stairs in front of the house, he smiled and raised his eyebrows. "Were you concerned you were interrupting something?" he asked, amused.

"What?" she replied, dazed.

"I only mention it because you are not typically in the habit of ringing the doorbell at your own home."

"Oh, right," she said, lamely.

Artemis seemed taken aback by Holly's stupor. And a stupor it was. Not many could have picked up an intelligible thought from Holly's brain at that moment.

"And you are home early from your shift as well. Is something the matter?" Artemis queried, his brow furrowed.

She still was having trouble formulating a response to what she was seeing.

Artemis's worried eyes wandered to the name badge on her jumpsuit, rested there for a moment, and then rapidly shot to the single acorn on her uniform. He then looked down at her left hand. Understanding flooded his face. Holly was glad it seemed _someone _understood what was going on here.

"Captain Short," he said, and she started when she realized the significance. He hadn't called her "Major", her apparent rank in the future. "Have you been playing with rifts in the fabric of time again?"

He knew. She saw no point in denying it. Holly nodded, and said "Yes."

He smirked down at Holly. "I see." He even shook his head and laughed shortly. "This explains a great deal," he said, almost to himself. "Why don't you come inside for a few minutes? I apparently have some explaining to do."

She hesitated a moment, thinking whether she should ask Artemis—future Artemis—whether it was really a good idea for her to not just hop back into the time stream and go back to the present. But then, she reasoned, he _is_ Artemis Fowl, and would warn me if he thought their interactions would mess up the space-time continuum or whatever it was called. So, she followed him inside.

The interior of the house was much more spacious than was found in the typical fairy household. In particular, Holly noted the high ceilings. The furniture in the entryway and front room was a mix of human and fairy-sized items, but all was modern and expensive-looking. However, Holly was comforted to see that the house was not completely immaculate—it also had a distinct "lived-in" look, with a few open books on the dark brown coffee table, and a coat draped over one of the armchairs.

Artemis led Holly over to the sofa in the front room, and sat down, gesturing for her to do the same. She sat wordlessly.

"So," he started, "from what time have you come?"

"About six years ago," she replied.

He smirked again. "And what in particular caused you to enter the time stream?"

"I was on duty in Chute 92 and I stumbled and was about to fall out of the maintenance tunnel Polter and I were stationed in. No1 was there and opened up the time stream to catch me. And since I am apparently still alive six years in the future, his plan must have worked."

Artemis laughed briefly. "Yes, you are _certainly_ still alive." He shook his head. "All this time I've wondered…" he said, again seeming to speak to himself.

All of this was nearly driving Holly crazy. What on earth did he mean? She wanted to ask him about all the laughing and the smirking, but instead she blurted out, "If _I_ supposedly live here, why are _you_ here right now?"

Another smile from Artemis Fowl. This time it was a bit more…soft? She struggled for an appropriate word to describe it. But then he raised his eyebrows as if anticipating something. "Brace yourself," he said, ominously.

He turned around where he sat on the sofa to take a picture frame off the end table abutting it. He looked at it for a moment, then his smile turned almost wicked as he handed it to Holly.

Of all that she had seen in her years as an LEP officer, this almost took the cake as the most astonishing—and she had seen some pretty crazy stuff.

She and Artemis Fowl in traditional elfin wedding clothes—as traditional as they could make them for a human. Artemis' arm around her. Both of them smiling. They looked…happy. Really happy.

Though it was difficult to tear her eyes away from the picture—a memory which had not yet occurred in her mind—she looked up at Artemis, who was watching her carefully. When their eyes met, he held up his left hand, which had a single band of white gold around his ring finger. "We're married," he said, simply.

"We're married," she repeated, almost in a whisper.

"Yes. For nearly five years now," he added.

"But I'm—and you're—" She couldn't even finish.

"Yes, it would seem to you like there are some…obstacles. Believe me, they seemed insurmountable to me as well back in your present time. But the passage of time has proven them all to be red herrings."

"Wait…we've been married five years? And this is six years in the future…so that means—"

"Yes. In your time you are a little over a year away. Don't worry—it was a small wedding. You didn't need much time to plan." That infuriating smile was still on his face—as if he found the turning of Holly's world completely upside down to be the most amusing thing in the world.

"Do I tell you about this trip?" Holly asked.

"Yes, but I certainly didn't know you came to the future and saw me. You mentioned briefly that No1 had sent you hurtling through time to stop you from hurtling to an untimely end, but you never told me where or when you went."

Holly shook her head, still having trouble taking everything in. "But the 'obstacles', as you called them—I'm having a hard time believing they turn out to be nothing," she said, skeptically.

Artemis rolled his eyes, and spoke in a patronizing tone, "You can believe it or not. There is some evidence, however, that may be a bit difficult to ignore."

_So five years of so-called marriage hadn't changed Artemis Fowl too much then_, Holly thought. "What evidence?"

"The photograph in your hands, for instance."

"That doesn't tell me everything. What about your life on the surface? Do you expect me to believe you just up and left it all behind?"

"Holly," he sighed, "it's not like I can never visit the surface. I don't even need a visa—you do, though, and the application process annoys you every single time we go up to visit my family. And I still put out patents and academic papers in the human world. I am simply thought by other humans to be incredibly reclusive—not an uncommon trait for a genius."

Holly actually laughed, despite the confusion she was still feeling.

"My family, by the way, is very fond of you. I believe they were amazed that I could be interested in anything other than computer programming and mechanical engineering."

She was hesitant to ask the biggest question on her mind—after all, what were the odds that such a major problem could _ever_ be solved, much less in a six year span?—but decided she needed to know. "But…won't you age as a human would? Wouldn't we only have five or six decades together?" That may have been a good, long marriage by Mud People standards—but it wasn't long enough in Holly's mind.

He shook his head. "No. Foaly and I worked out a way to slow my aging to almost a fairy's pace. My projected lifespan is not quite as long as the average lifespan of an elf, but to the best of our knowledge, it should come within a few decades. It was not a solution we could use on many other humans—if on any at all. My dealings with the People have caused me to become considerably more…tolerant to certain variants of magic than a normal human being. And it requires regular infusions of No1's magic to keep it effective. It may take two or three more decades to truly judge the solution, but according to the data we have so far, it seems to be working very well."

Holly was surprised at the sudden emotion she felt in her chest as a result of Artemis's words. Underpinning all of her suppression of thoughts about him was the fact that, even if they did decide to get together, he would only be alive a few decades more and it wouldn't be worth the immense pain it would cost when he deteriorated and died. Better to save herself from such heartbreak.

But now he was telling her that they had much greater odds of living life together for the long haul. With the knowledge she now had that he could survive as long as or almost as long as she could, her resistance was crumbling fast.

It took a moment for the emotion to pass, but when it did she felt her face grow warm as another question entered her head. She very much wanted to ask it, but it would be…weird.

Artemis seemed again to sense her thoughts—_I guess he's become good at reading me over five years of marriage_—and had the decency to at least try not to smile as he said, "I don't want to overload you with too much information, nor offend propriety, but I should also assure you that you and I…er…"—he seemed to struggle for a moment for words—"…function as any other normal human or elfin couple would."

Holly sat there, blinking, for a moment, but then burst out laughing. Artemis laughed as well. One of the most amazing things she had seen since entering the house with Artemis was seeing how light-hearted he was in the future. He had never been one to laugh much. That seemed different now. She liked seeing him so happy.

"On a related note, I believe I need to show you one more thing," he said, after they had stopped laughing. "Follow me."

They left the front room and travelled up a beautiful spiral staircase to an upper floor, and down a hallway to a closed door on their right. Artemis put a finger to his lips to indicate they needed to be quiet. He opened the door to reveal a dark room, a shaft of light from the hallway casting a shard of light into the blackness. She stopped breathing when she saw a crib.

She looked at Artemis, hope, fear, and a million other emotions warring inside of her. He only nodded.

Stepping softly through the room towards the crib, she managed to take a deep breath before looking over the railing down onto the little mattress below.

There lay a sleeping little boy with pointed ears and black hair, tangled in blankets and clutching a stuffed rocket ship. The boy was lying on his back so that his face was turned up towards her. The face looked remarkably like the ten-year-old face she had seen of the man who was now standing beside her—a face she had also seen when travelling through time. The small boy in front of her now was not so pale, though. He looked to be two or three years old.

He was perfect. And though she didn't know how it was possible, her heart swelled in size to allow an influx of love for this little boy she had only just met, and to whom she would have to say goodbye just as suddenly.

Looking up at Artemis, she knew the answer to the question in her eyes already. He obliged, however, by saying, in a whisper, "Allow me to introduce Charlie Fowl, our son. He's three years old now."

She said the only thing she felt she could possibly utter at that moment. "He looks like you." Glancing at Artemis as she made the comment, she saw an expression of pride come across his face as he looked down at the sleeping boy.

They stood there for a few moments in silence, watching the child sleep, both lost in thought. Eventually, they turned around and left the room, though Holly felt as if she could have watched the little boy for hours more. Artemis quietly closed the door behind him.

They walked back down to the front room in silence, and sat again upon the sofa. Artemis cleared his throat and said, "Yes, we are parents to one of the few elf-human hybrids in history. Apparently elves have been hesitant to mix with humans throughout the past several thousand years," he said. Then a wicked grin spread over his face. "Though your future self doesn't seem too repulsed. In fact, just the other day you informed me that we are going to have another child."

She rolled her eyes, though she couldn't help but smile. He was just as arrogant as ever. But internally, possibilities were opening up—possibilities she had only once allowed herself to consider, when she had sat with Artemis Fowl on the hood of a stolen car during an impossible mission.

"Arty," she said, "we're happy, aren't we? I mean, in your time. It wasn't a mistake?"

His eyes and smile softened with the sincerity of her question. "Yes, we are _very_ happy, and I don't think either of us has ever thought it was a mistake. That's not to say we don't drive each other to insanity sometimes…but we love each other very much."

The answered satisfied Holly. She decided to change the subject to something a bit lighter. "So, do you just sit around at home all day while I save Haven?"

"No—sometimes we save Haven together. I still do quite a bit of consulting work for the LEP. I also do quite a bit of work in my study or my laboratory, here at the house. I was just working on a paper for a physics journal when you decided to pay me a visit."

"Something ground-breaking?"

"Would you expect anything else from me?"

"Yeah, yeah. So in my time we're getting married a year from now," she said, still having trouble believing it. "Is there any use asking how it happened? How we got together?"

"If you would believe it, I actually was the first to admit my feelings, though only some _subtle _encouragement from you gave me enough courage to do so."

"What do you mean, 'subtle encouragement'?"

"Oh, I daresay you will figure it out. You already know the denouement of the story; I cannot give away the rising action and climax. I would be unspeakably cruel to deprive you of the enjoyment of living through it all."

"Typical Artemis Fowl—only telling people what _he _thinks they need to know." She gave him an affectionate punch in the arm.

A cry interrupted their conversation, and Artemis got up from the sofa. "It's a good thing we could hear him from down here. I left the monitor in my study when I came down to answer the door. I will be back momentarily." He left Holly sitting where she was and went back upstairs.

A minute or two later, he came back down with little Charlie, who was snuggled against his father, his little arms around Artemis's neck and his head on his shoulder. Though Holly knew Charlie was large for a three-year-old elf (no doubt due to his human heritage), he looked very small in Artemis's arms.

The first time Holly had seen Artemis with his younger brothers, she had been surprised at how good he was with them—she had always thought he might think little children frustrating in their simplicity; however, he had shown remarkable patience, endeavouring (with varying degrees of success) to teach them what they didn't know rather than throwing up his hands in exasperation. Even if what he was trying to teach them was a bit ridiculous.

She saw the same patience in him now as he held his—_their_—son in his arms. And that sight affected her profoundly.

At age three, elves, being slower to age than humans, were generally still more or less infants, still crawling rather than walking, and not really having the ability to speak in anything more than random syllables. Artemis turned Charlie so that he could see Holly. Perhaps it was the fact that Charlie's father was a genius, but Holly was taken aback when the boy smiled and said "Hi Mommy!"

Artemis smiled at the expression on Holly's face—a deer caught in headlights. "Do you want to hold your future son?" he asked, amusement in his eyes. She nodded.

He gently placed the child in her arms. The love that had taken hold of her earlier, when she had first seen him, swelled within her chest. It was a strange sensation, knowing as she did that this child would not really be hers for a few years yet. But she knew she would hold onto this memory until he was.

Without warning, they heard footsteps on the stairs outside leading up to the front door. Holly, knowing it would probably be herself arriving home, gave Charlie back to Artemis as hurriedly as she could while still being gentle. Artemis nodded at her. He knew as well as she that her future self might be a bit…disturbed to see another version of herself standing in her front room. She had already toyed enough with the vagaries of time travel for one day. So, she shielded and went to stand in the corner of the front room. As long as her future self didn't enter the house wearing her LEP helmet, she should be okay. She decided she would leave once opportunity permitted.

The front door opened, and in walked future Holly. Holly was surprised that, if anything, she appeared a bit younger than she currently was—not by much, but it was enough that she noticed it.

Future Holly broke out in a smile when she saw Artemis standing with Charlie in the front room. Charlie didn't seem too bothered by the fact that his mother had previously been sitting on the sofa but was now walking through the front door. Holly watched as her future self came over to where her husband (the thought still amazed her) stood holding their son. Future Holly gave Charlie a kiss on his forehead and said, "Hey buddy, I missed you today!" She took him into her arms and snuggled him for a moment, before saying, "I'm just going to put you down for a second so I can say hello to Daddy," and putting him in a baby swing in another corner of the room that the other Holly only now noticed.

Artemis had obligingly sat down on the arm of one of the chairs so he would be closer to Holly's height. Future Holly returned to where he was and wrapped her arms around his neck. "I've missed you, too," she said, in a low voice. He smiled back at her, and they kissed deeply. As they parted, future Holly kept her arms around Artemis's neck as she said, in that same low voice, "It was a _very _long day today. I think I'm going to need some help de-stressing after we put Charlie to bed."

Artemis, perhaps conscious that present Holly was somewhere in the vicinity witnessing her future self's ardour, blushed bright red, and he chuckled a bit nervously. "I'll see what I can do to help," he replied.

Future Holly extricated herself from Artemis and picked up Charlie again. Artemis stood and cleared his throat. "Holly, it is recycling day tomorrow, is it not?"

Future Holly thought for a moment. "Yep, I think it is. We'll need to remember to take it out tomorrow morning."

Artemis replied, looking significantly over at present Holly's general area. "I think I'll take it out right now. I believe I could benefit from a moment of fresh air before we start supper."

He disappeared to the kitchen and returned a few moments later with a bag clearly full of rubbish. He walked through the front room area and opened the front door. He then took two shoes from the closet beside the door and began slowly putting them on his feet. Present Holly took the opportunity to silently cross to the door and slip outside. Artemis finished with his shoes and followed her.

Artemis, true to his word, put the bag in a blue bin sitting on the curb in front of the house. Identical bins lined both sides of the residential street. Then he stepped into an area that Holly recognized would make him invisible to anyone in the house, even if they stood right at the large front window. She approached him, ensuring she would not be seen, and unshielded.

"So," he said to her, quietly, "you have been granted a rare glimpse into your future life. I hope you like what you have seen."

"It looks amazing," she replied, sincerely. "I would stay longer if I could, but No1's magic is weakening."

Smiling, he responded, "You will get here soon enough."

"But there's one thing I don't get. Why didn't you just tell me to go back to the past when you first saw me today? Wasn't it dangerous somehow for me to see so much of my future?"

He sighed, switching into lecture mode. "Holly, have I not told you before? The fact that you have seen anything here today will make no difference to your time, my time, or any time in between. In my time, your trip to the future happened six years ago. It has affected everything that has happened since already. In fact, when I realized you were from the past, I knew instantly that I needed to show you your future. I knew I needed to demonstrate to you that you and I could and _did_ work out."

"How did you know?"

"We have been friends for years, Holly. Except for a brief period—also during time travel—there had been nothing more between us—at least, nothing either of us would admit—until six years ago. You came back from a short trip into time, and it seemed something had somehow changed between us. Then, when I finally told you how I felt about you, despite all of the problems I saw, you were completely confident that all of my worries would come to naught. Despite my typical need to project the future success of any venture, I cast all desire for certainty aside and depended upon the confidence you exuded when it came to the two of us. For the first time in my life I was willing to forget logic and lean upon your hope. We were not together long before I proposed marriage." He paused. "When I realized you were from six years ago, I knew that you had to know your future, because you had known it all along." He grinned. "Does that make sense?"

"It might if you give me a few minutes to think about it," she joked.

"Just please be patient with me when you arrive back in the past. That Artemis cares for you deeply, but has not yet allowed himself to see past the apparent impediments to a relationship with you. And to him, the greatest impediment of all is believing you care for him only as a friend. If you can give him a few reasons to hope otherwise, the rest of his resistance will crumble."

Holly simply nodded. He had given her a lot to think about.

He went on. "One more thing before you go. How do _you _feel about the Artemis of your time? I only ask out of curiosity. I don't trust the Holly of _my_ time to remember the facts correctly."

She hesitated for a moment, then realized that she wasn't going to embarrass herself by telling the truth—her future self was _married_ to this man, for Frond's sake. So she said, "I feel about him just about the same way he feels about me. Though that is starting to change thanks to you sharing all of your past self's secrets."

Artemis laughed—a wonderful sound that she heard too seldom in the present. "Well," he said, shaking his head and smiling, "I suppose I have a small, lost bat and a jumpy LEP rookie to thank for my current happiness. If you and I had been left to our own devices, we would have ended up alone. Trust the two of us to have time travel act as our matchmaker."

Holly couldn't help but laugh as well. It was true—she and Artemis were not a traditional couple in any sense of the phrase.

She reached out and hugged Artemis. "Thanks, Arty. This has been a very…enlightening trip." As she walked back to the spot on the sidewalk where she had appeared, she felt No1's magic grow stronger.

"Oh, and Holly?"

She turned back to face him. "What?"

"You are going to end up a little bit younger when you return to your time. Not as young as the last time, but a bit younger. But all of your body parts remain intact. I tell you this so you won't be concerned about something going wrong during your trip back."

"Thanks for the heads up. As long as I don't have to prove my age everywhere I go…"

As she let herself be pulled by No1's magic back into the time tunnel, she thought momentarily about how she had never really given much consideration to ever getting married and having a family. If someone had come up to her on the street and told her she would be getting married in a year, she would have either laughed at them or punched them. And if by some miracle she believed that person, she would have been terrified.

But seeing her life, how happy she was in the future…she now knew that that was the life for her.

**Author's Note: **as usual, please review! Thanks to those who have reviewed/favorited/followed this story!


	5. Hylan Judkins

As Holly travelled back to her time, she hoped that Artemis was right—if she emerged physically younger that she would not be as young as she had been the last time she had time travelled. In human terms she was only really in her late 20s—and she didn't want to feel the same instability she had felt when she had returned to an adolescent body, if only briefly.

When she popped back into the present, it was only to be grabbed by Polter and pulled back into the tunnel. No1's plan had worked—as she knew it would. When she regained her balance, she turned to Polter. "Thanks. But try not to be so jumpy, okay?" And then to No1, "And thank you, too. You are getting pretty good at that."

No1 shrugged, looking giddy with relief. "I would have just stopped time, but it is nearly impossible for one warlock to do that alone, no matter how powerful. You need at least two for there to be any stability. It was much easier for me to send you on a little trip—no pun intended." He looked a little more closely at her. "And it looks like the trip took a few years off, too."

Holly walked over to where they had parked the small vehicle and looked into the reflective glass windshield like it was a mirror. She was relieved to see that the trip _had _only taken a few years off.

"So when did you go to?" No1 asked.

She debated how much to reveal. In the end, she thought that she had better keep the lion's share of her experience to herself, since apparently she didn't even say much to Artemis about it. As a result, she simply stated, "My future."

No1 probably sensed her reluctance to elaborate, and asked only, "Was it a good one?"

She nodded. "Yes, it was very good."

Suddenly, a speeding gyro passed the maintenance shuttle. Grinning at No1, Holly said, "I'll see you later, No1. Duty calls. Come on, Polter—let's go!" The two LEP officers hopped in the LEP cruiser and took off after the gyro.

Holly had a lot to think about over the next day or two. Her next shift on duty was a night shift, and when she reported for work, she was immediately called into Commander Trouble Kelp's office by his assistant.

"Yes, Trouble?" she said as she stepped into his office. He had long ago stopped correcting her when she referred to him by his first name—she had never listened anyways.

"Captain, we have a problem. About eight hours ago, Hylan Judkins was kidnapped."

Holly was taken aback. Hylan Judkins was one of the members of Council elected post-Opal. He had since become one of its more popular members. "What? Why am I only hearing about this now? Haven't any reporters scooped it yet?"

"No," he replied. "We've managed to keep a lid on the situation for now, but that won't last long. We wanted to be able to say we had at least some kind of lead before the media picked it up, but we've got nothing. And if we wait much longer to tell the media, there's going to be all sorts of accusations thrown at the LEP for suppression of information."

Holly knew the truth in what Trouble was saying. "We have nothing at all? How is that possible?"

Trouble rubbed his temples with the tips of his fingers and sighed. "When we got to his house, there was a sign of a struggle, but no fingerprints, no DNA traces, no shoe prints. Not a single flake of skin or strand of hair left behind that wasn't Judkins's. No ransom note. There wasn't even any surveillance footage of the exterior of his home. You know his stance on all of our street surveillance—he sits right in the pocket of the Fairy Privacy Advocates Association. The idiot had a jammer in his house that blocked all street cameras within a three hundred yard radius."

"How did we know to go there, then?" Holly asked.

"His alarm system. He apparently had some feature that would alert LEP dispatch in the event of a break-in. That's about the only thing the alarm system did for Judkins in this situation."

"What can I do, Trubbs?"

Trouble winced slightly at his nickname, but went on, saying, "Like I said, we've had no leads and the longer it takes to find him, the less likely he's going to be alive." The Commander clenched his fists.

Holly realized what was coming. Her heart started beating faster.

Trouble continued, speaking as if every word he said annoyed him. "I need you to go get Fowl. Tell him we'll pay him the usual rate for his services. And don't be afraid to give him a zap with your neutrino in order to get him down here." Holly knew that he meant that last sentence as a joke. Sort of.

"Yes sir," she said, and she was out the door.

Her first stop was Foaly's control booth. The centaur was humming some unrecognizeable tune—or rather, his humming was making some tune unrecognizeable—and typing away on his keyboard when Holly entered the open door.

"Foaly, when's the next flare? I need to get to Tara."

"Well, hello to you, too," he replied, feigning hurt feelings. "Going to pick up Artemis Fowl, I take it?"

"You got it."

"All right, well, you are in luck. Next one is in a half hour. Just long enough to get a pod ready. In no time you'll be annoying the Customs gnome at the Tara shuttleport."

Holly always felt the butterflies of anticipation before riding the flares. It was certainly not for the faint of heart. But today she felt even more nervous than usual. If her trip to the future was not just a weird and incredibly realistic dream, then her relationship with Artemis Fowl was about to change very quickly…

**Author's Note: **please review! Thanks again for reading!


	6. The New Artemis

Before long Holly was flying above the dark Irish countryside. Soon the lights of Dublin shone in the distance, and shortly after that she was approaching the grounds of Fowl Manor. The grounds had been parcelled out to people from the nearby village as plots to farm after Opal, but the gated Manor and immediately surrounding gardens still belonged to the Fowl family.

Though the world had certainly changed since the Opal Catastrophe, it hadn't been long until certain people again rose to the top in terms of money and power. The Fowl family had naturally fallen into that category—but, fortunately, they were different people than they had been ten years ago. They used their wealth and influence for the good of others now. And notwithstanding the loss of financial data on computer systems worldwide, the Fowls were still as rich as ever. That was largely a result of Artemis, for two reasons. First, he had always firmly believed in having a large amount of money laid by in the form of actual gold, rather than numbers in a computer system. Second, he had continued inventing and programming and engineering. He had hundreds of patents, and kept money pouring into the Fowl coffers, even though, unlike in his younger years, he had decreased his profit margin to a relatively small percentage on all of his patented products and programs. And, once the Fowls had the money, it wasn't long before it was flowing out of their hands into some charity.

So, Holly wasn't surprised to see, as she approached the house, the place lit up like a Christmas tree. Shielded, she flew around the back and saw a number of very expensive-looking vehicles parked, with a bored valet trudging back to the front of the house, presumably having just parked one of the cars. The Fowls were clearly having a charity benefit dinner or cocktail party or something.

She continued flying until she found a window looking into the house with a high view of the ballroom. It was a beautiful, enormous chamber that had barely been used for years under Artemis Sr, except for the occasional experiment where Artemis Jr had needed a large indoor space. Now, it was transformed—glowing warmly with glittering lights and well-dressed people milling about with champagne flutes in their hands.

Holly's eyes searched the room. Surely Artemis was here somewhere. She found his father, speaking animatedly with a small group of men and women, and then his mother, conspiratorily chatting with a few women. They kept looking secretively over at a certain area of the room. Holly followed their gaze and found a young woman engaged in conversation with Artemis Fowl himself. And in Holly's opinion, that young woman was enjoying the conversation a little too much.

Artemis Fowl was no longer the scrawny twelve-year-old he had been eleven years ago. In fact, his soul was literally in a different body—though of course, the body looked like and had the exact same genetic code as his old body. There were only four differences—the index and middle fingers on one of his hands were now in their proper places; he was physically slightly older than he should have been (Foaly had let the clone grow a little too long); he had an extra toe (also thanks to Foaly); and he had two startlingly blue eyes.

Holly still felt an odd sense of loss when she was reminded of his two blue eyes. They reminded her of those terrible six months after he had made the ultimate sacrifice. They reminded her that she was no longer a literal part of him. Of course, she still had one of his blue eyes, but it wasn't the same.

At first, after he had come back to life, it had seemed a hopeless case that he would ever be the same Artemis they had known before the Opal Catastrophe. His memories were elusive, and though his personality was the same, his amnesia meant he had no terms of reference with which to interpret the world—and the people—around him. Holly had tirelessly recounted their experiences together, trying to jumpstart his memory up and running. But after weeks with no results, she had begun losing hope.

Then, one day she had been walking with him near the spot where it had happened—where he had collapsed, lifeless, on the ground. He had been staring at his feet as he walked—Holly had known that however frustrated she might feel at the lack of progress with Artemis's memory, Artemis himself was feeling despondent that he might never regain his memories. Suddenly, though, he had looked up at Holly and it was as if—to borrow a cliched human phrase—a lightbulb had gone off in his head. No, it was more like a five thousand watt spotlight than a lightbulb. His mouth hung slightly open as fifteen years of memories rushed through Artemis Fowl's consciousness, taking their places in his brain as if they had never been gone.

After that moment, the Artemis Fowl Holly had known was back.

She could have taken his face in her hands and kissed him right then and there out of sheer joy and relief. Thankfully, she had a bit more self-control than she had as a physically-adolescent elf time-travelling with Artemis. And anyways, she couldn't have reached his face without a stepladder. So she didn't. Instead, she wrapped her arms around him and gave him the biggest hug she knew how to give (which was saying something, because Holly _never _hugged—something Artemis with his new-old memories could have told you).

She had asked him how it had happened—how he had regained all of his memories. He had replied that it was likely a combination of Holly working with him so consistently to remember everything and the fact that it had taken some time for his floating soul to fully integrate with all of his neural receptors, and that for whatever reason his memory was the last thing to come back, after the full use of his right big toe. Holly suspected that the second reason was the more important one, but she couldn't say that she really understood it.

Whatever the reason, it had been a wonderful day for the Fowl family. Artemis Sr couldn't seem to stop asking Artemis Jr random questions about his childhood and adolescence, only to grin widely every single time the latter rolled his eyes and answered the question perfectly. Myles and Beckett were thrilled to have their big brother really and truly _back_—even if it meant more lessons on word association. And Angeline alternated between weeping out of happiness and suffocating Artemis in crushing hugs.

Yes, Artemis Fowl had returned. Not only was he back, but any last vestiges of the Atlantis Complex that may have lingered in his old brain were gone. He got back to work trying to save the world from humanity—and trying to make his family a decent amount of money—and thrived. His brain even seemed sharper, perhaps because it was new. His inventions, even the ones that did not draw upon fairy technology, had astounded the world and money poured into the Fowl coffers faster than Artemis's parents could spend it on their various charitable endeavours.

But Artemis had not only grown up mentally. Artemis was now twenty-three years of age (or what he approximated as twenty-three years of age—his various…adventures with the Fairy People had more or less robbed even him of any real idea of how old he was mentally or physically. All he had to rely upon was the year in which he was born—with three years subtracted for his time on the demon isle of Hybras), and Holly had been forced to acknowledge to herself that he was very good-looking for a Mud Man. He was no longer the clumsy and uncoordinated teenager he had once been. Butler had insisted, even while Artemis was struggling to remember his prior life following his revival, on daily training sessions at the dojo. No more allowing Artemis to go and "practice" in private—Butler knew Artemis would simply find some kind of other project to work on to avoid the physical training.

Though Artemis certainly came nowhere near the physical prowess of Butler—or his size for that matter—Butler himself had privately acknowledged to Holly that he was satisfied Artemis would be able to handle himself in most hand-to-hand combat situations, so long as Artemis faced no more than one opponent at a time. And that, Butler had said, sighing exaggeratedly and winking at Holly, was about all the physical ability he was going to be able to squeeze out of Artemis. The young genius, though he still found physical training to be mentally unstimulating, had enough muscle tone to fill out his trademark suits a little better than before.

Yes, Holly knew that to any human girl, Artemis would certainly appear to be quite the catch. Handsome, rich, incredibly intelligent, and able to perform chin-ups—at least, a few chin-ups. The girl with which he was talking tonight seemed very aware of Artemis's good qualities.

But Holly smiled as she thought of Artemis's not-so-good qualities. When he had finally regained his memory and was really back from the dead, his arrogance had mellowed—death tends to do that to a person—but was certainly still present. His ability to politely tolerate people of a lower intellectual capacity—other than, Holly noted, young children, with whom Artemis had always been able to patiently interact—had increased, but an evening of what he called "inane and insipid prattling", such as this party, still wore his patience thin. And she couldn't help but hope that the human girl was doing just that.

She zoomed her helmet's camera onto Artemis's face. He seemed to be wearing his "polite" expression. This gave Holly hope that he wasn't actually interested in what the girl was saying. He said something briefly before the girl began speaking again. Holly wished she had Artemis's skills in lip-reading. She looked back at where Artemis's mother was standing with the other women. They were smiling as they watched Artemis and the girl speaking. Holly realized that the ladies must have been trying to make a match between the two. She suddenly felt something like possessiveness welling up inside her. Rationally, she knew that the women couldn't possibly know what she knew about her future with Artemis—but, still, she couldn't help feeling a little resentment that they would be trying to draw him away from her (even if they had no idea they were doing so).

When she looked back at Artemis and the girl, Artemis was responding with a sardonic smile. The girl laughed, and put a hand on his arm. He raised his eyebrows. Holly decided she had wasted enough time and called Artemis's fairy com device. His hand went almost instantly to his pocket, where Holly knew the device must be. He said a few words to the girl, clearly making his apologies, and stepped out of sight through a nearby doorway into one of the Manor's cavernous hallways.

"Holly," she heard him say through her helmet's built-in headset. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Sorry to interrupt the _party_," she replied, with a slightly sarcastic emphasis on the last word. "I'm here on official LEP business. Can we meet in your study?"

"Certainly. I will go there directly and leave a window open."

"How do you know I'm not already there?" she asked, allowing the smallest amount of playfulness into her tone.

He sighed exaggeratedly, and Holly could picture him rolling his eyes and smiling. "Captain Short, do you honestly want me to explain the Fowl Manor security system to you yet again?"

She groaned. "No, thanks." Disconnecting the call, she flew back around the house to the window of Artemis's study. She had to hover for a minute while she waited for him to arrive and open the window.

As she gracefully landed on the expensive oriental rug, she felt good to be back at Fowl Manor. It was strange she should feel that way, given all that had transpired here since she had first been kidnapped by a much younger Artemis. But she felt it all the same—perhaps even because of all that had happened.

Artemis stood, arms folded, leaning against his solid mahogony desk, watching Holly touch down, a characteristically enigmatic smile on his face. Even after he had come back from the dead, he had persisted in wearing custom designer suits—but he was looking even more formal than usual this evening in a tuxedo.

"I like the bow tie," Holly said, grinning.

"It makes me to feel like I am at a wedding or the Nobel Prize award ceremony. In fact, this is the very tuxedo I wore when I accepted my prize last year."

Holly had started a bit when he had said the "W" word. She mentally shook herself—she couldn't afford to start acting like an idiot. "And that was Nobel Prize number two?"

"Correct. For Chemistry. The first was Physics. I am endeavouring to collect all of them before I die…again."

Holly shuddered. "Don't remind me." Trying to downplay the effect Artemis's casual reference to his first death had wrought upon her, she said, "You might have a little trouble getting the Peace one, though."

"Yes, well, if you must know, I have been brokering a peace treaty between two warring Middle Eastern nations via video chat."

Holly shook her head. "Only Artemis Fowl…"

He simply smirked.

"So, anyways, what's the occasion? Why the party and the penguin suit?"

"Charity silent auction for Amnesty International. Many of the attendees are auctioning off services or donated items."

"And what are you auctioning off?" Holly asked.

"My services as a computer programmer. I will design and program software to do whatever the successful bidder needs it to do. I sincerely hope it is something challenging." He paused, and scrutinized Holly more closely. "Captain Short, you appear to be slightly younger than when I last saw you. Have you been time travelling without me?"

Amazing. She really didn't know anyone more observant than Artemis Fowl. "Yes," she replied. "It was unintentional, though. No1 had to open a rift to stop me from ending up a pancake at the bottom of Chute 92."

Artemis raised an eyebrow. "Chute 92? Don't they have anything less dull for an officer of your caliber to do?"

"Believe me, I know."

Artemis appeared on the verge of asking some follow-up questions regarding her trip through time, but Holly knew from future Artemis that she had skimped on the details when telling present Artemis about her time in the future, so she decided to change the subject. She realized Artemis would see through her thin ploy, but hoped he would simply let that particular topic of conversation lie. "So, Arty, who was your friend in there?"

He seemed genuinely caught off guard. "Who?"

"You know, that girl. The one caressing your arm."

He rolled his eyes. "I would _hardly _call that a 'caress'. In any event, she is merely the heiress of some American hotel chain. Thank goodness you called when you did, however; I was running out of things to say to her. She is a nice girl, I suppose, but there is only so much one can say about modern popular music and still remain polite." He stood up straight and smoothed his tuxedo jacket. "So, Holly. What can I do for the LEP this evening?"

"Someone's kidnapped Judkins."

Artemis's smile was gone—now he was all business. "The Council member?"

"Yeah. And whoever it was left no trace or ransom note. Trouble wants you on the case. Can you and Butler come now?"

"I doubt I have much of a choice if Commander Kelp is involved—but yes, I will go inform Mother of where I am going and collect Butler. Meet us just outside of the front gate—where the valet will not be able to see you—in ten minutes."

Artemis was true to his word. By the time ten minutes had passed from the time they had split up, he and Butler exited the large gate of Fowl Manor and joined Holly just around the corner. Each carried a small suitcase.

Butler greeted her warmly. "Holly, it's very good to see you."

"Likewise, old friend," Holly said, grinning. With the help of the sophisticated night vision function with which her helmet was equipped, she was able to see that Artemis had gone from wearing a tuxedo to now wearing one of his designer suits. The bow tie had been replaced by a simple, black necktie—though it still probably still cost the GDP of a small country. "You changed…sort of."

"Of course I did. You cannot expect me to do my best work unless I am comfortable, now can you?"

**Author's Note: **you know what I'm going to say—please review! A big thank you to all who have left their comments so far. Tomorrow we are heading back to Haven City…


	7. Big Bertha

Given the need to expedite the trip to Tara, Butler, Holly and Artemis had agreed that it would be fastest to forget taking one of the Fowl family's luxury sedans and instead fly. Accordingly, Artemis and Butler had donned camo-foil (Holly knew she might get her wrists slapped for using so much to cover up Butler) and been hooked onto Holly's moonbelt.

There was no discussion of the facts of the case on the way to Tara—the howling of the wind as it whipped past them precluded all conversation. As they lowered themselves through the holographically concealed entrance to the Tara shuttleport, Butler wasted no time in shimmying out of the camo-foil. Both he and Artemis were free by the time the trio's feet touched the ground.

Once she had managed to unhook the two humans—while Butler quietly grumbled something about low ceilings—she rushed over to the small LEP booth near Customs. It was currently being staffed by an old pixie named Kellers. Retirement was only a couple of months away for him. Right now he was talking to an irritated female sprite with two kids in tow.

"Kellers," Holly abruptly broke in, "I need a shuttle, ASAP. Sorry," she said to the sprite, as an afterthought. The sprite did not seem very placated by Holly's belated attempt at politeness.

Kellers waved his hand dismissively. "Sure, kid. What size do you need?"

Holly turned around and looked at Butler. When she turned back to Kellers, she saw that his gaze—and the sprite's—had followed hers, and now both were eying the massive human. Kellers had seen Butler before, but Holly had a feeling this was the first time the sprite had. "I need the biggest one you've got," Holly replied.

Kellers nodded repeatedly, clearly a little nervous with the sight of Butler. "Yeah, sure, sure, take Big Bertha. She's been itching for some exercise anyways."

"Thanks. And, of course, we'll need chute priority as soon as we get up and running."

Kellers snorted. "Usually I'd say that you might have trouble convincing the mucky-mucks up here to give you that, but I think with _him_—"he nodded his head towards Butler—"you shouldn't have too many problems."

The old man was right. Generally the higher-ups at the Tara shuttleport didn't like to be told they had to delay flights just because the LEP wanted to get somewhere a little faster. But they also had seen Butler come and go through their shuttleport numerous times. And if what the several unofficial biographies of Artemis Fowl floating around the fairy world said was true, they didn't want to see what happened when something stood in Butler's way. At least, not if what stood in Butler's way was their own bureaucratic red tape. So, in minutes Holly was firing up "Big Bertha", an old clunker of a shuttle—but at least Butler didn't have to hunch when sitting.

On the way to Haven City, Holly filled Artemis and Butler in on the remainder of the information she knew about the situation they were walking into—which wasn't much.

"Did they find Judkins' phone in his home?" Artemis asked Holly.

"I don't know. Let's ask Foaly." She connected to Foaly's control booth through the shuttle's communication system. "Foaly, this is Holly. Artemis wants to know if we picked up Judkins' phone when we searched his home."

Foaly's voice sounded through the old speakers—which were still better than the speakers on the average high-end human surround sound system. "No—but I know what you're thinking, Artemis. We can't track his phone. Judkins was paranoid when it came to privacy. He paid a lot of money to make his phone untraceable."

Artemis murmured, "No phone is untraceable."

"What was that?" Foaly asked.

Clearing his throat, Artemis repeated, this time louder, "No phone is untraceable. I might be able to pick something up when I get there."

Foaly scoffed. "Yeah right, Mud Boy. If _I _couldn't pick anything up, what makes you so sure you can get something?"

"It's a technology I have been working on recently. When phones—both fairy and human—are used, they beam nearly waves up to satellites, which, as you know, then beam the signal back down to the intended recipient on earth. Each phone leaves a barely detectable digital signature in the surrounding area when it is used, made up of residual waves left behind. If Judkins used his phone recently in his home, we should be able to detect the digital signature, replicate it, beam it up to the satellite, and use it to connect backwards with the device. Once we have given the satellite the digital signature, it will find the phone for us. It will be like giving a bloodhound the scent of of its prey."

Once Artemis had finished, Holly waited for Foaly's reply. There was silence. It lasted so long that eventually Holly asked, "Foaly, you there?"

"Yes," Foaly piped in, coldly.

Artemis looked at Holly and smirked.

"Fine, Mud Boy," Foaly said, finally. "I'll send a few of my guys out to Judkins's place. Let's hope your little theory is right." And with that, Foaly cut out.

"He just cannot handle suggestions, can he?" Artemis said, sounding very satisfied with himself.

"You didn't just make all of that up to annoy Foaly, right?" Holly asked.

"No, I really have been working on it recently. I daresay Foaly will have the technology to do it in some of his already existing devices; he just had not yet thought of the concept. But I also _did_ enjoy annoying him."

Holly just shook her head, smiling.

By the time they reached Foaly's control booth at Police Plaza, he was just dismissing the techies who had returned from Judkins's place. Foaly seemed to have recovered from his irritation with Artemis, and in a perfectly affable manner conveyed the results of the search. "My guys were able to pick up the digital signature at his place. I was just about to call in the Commander for the attempt to connect via satellite."

Trouble was sent for, and shuffled into the now-packed control booth. When he saw Artemis and Butler—for how could one miss two fully-grown (or in Butler's case, overgrown) humans in any fairy-sized room?—he cleared his throat and almost growled as he said, "I hope you've got something for us, Fowl. Time to earn those ridiculous fees you charge."

"Commander, I think if you did a little research in the human world, you would find that my fees are really quite reasonable. But yes, I do believe we have a lead."

Foaly explained the basics of what the techies had done at Judkins's house, and what Foaly was about to do now. Even after simplifying things a great deal, Holly could tell that Trouble knew almost no more than he had known when he had stepped into the booth. She was actually in the same boat.

Foaly turned to his 'old school' keyboard and started clacking away at the keys. Soon, a fairy dial tone came through the control booth speakers, and after a few more key strokes by Foaly, the sound turned into ringing. Holly glanced up at Artemis. He appeared to be concentrating very hard on listening.

The ringing abruptly ended and Judkins's voicemail greeting began playing. Holly felt disappointment that it seemed their only possible lead had ended in one of the most annoying voicemail greetings she had ever heard. So, naturally, she was a bit surprised when Foaly said, "Well, Artemis, I have to give you credit. It's worked. I'll have to remember this little trick for the future."

She was about to chalk it up to Foaly's typical facetiousness, when Artemis graciously replied, "It was my pleasure. Now, what is his location?"

Trouble was, again, just as confused as she was. "Wait a second. We got his voicemail. Weren't we hoping to connect with someone?"

Foaly answered his question. "We didn't care about connecting with a person—just the phone itself. His phone is obviously on silent, but that's okay. We only wanted to know where it was. We told the satellite which phone we were looking for, and it hunted it down—a natural task for a communications satellite. Now we have a lock on exactly where he is. All the anti-spying features in the world couldn't prevent us from tracking him."

Holly understood what he was saying now. "All right, let's get some officers to the site. I'll go, Trubs."

"_Commander Kelp_," he corrected her through clenched teeth. "And no, you're staying here. You're Recon, remember? This is a job for Retrieval."

"Don't we need Recon to go in first? To scope out the situation?"

"The answer is no, Captain. We need tactically-trained personnel going in there. I've had a perfectly good team waiting on call for any leads. _They_ will go in."

Holly felt like sulking, but then decided that would not be the most professional thing to do.

As Trouble left the control booth momentarily to go and give the order to move out to the coordinates Foaly provided, Foaly was trying to find out what was actually at the location of the coordinates. He patched himself through to the complex network of surveillance cameras that hung above Haven City and its suburbs. When he found the relevant camera, he switched his large monitor to display the video feed.

"Uh oh," he said. "Well. Not an ideal situation."

Holly's eyes widened as she saw what he meant. Judkins—or at least his phone—was at a school.

Butler nearly growled, "A school? What kind of psychopath are we dealing with here?"

"We don't know yet," Artemis answered, though all of them knew Butler's question had been rhetorical. "It could be the kind of psychopath who uses a school full of children as a shield from the police, or it could be the kind of psychopath who wants to harm a school full of children just for fun. Either way, I echo Foaly's sentiments that this complicates matters a great deal."

Trouble re-entered the room. He noticed the expressions of the others and asked, "What did I miss?"

"Sir," Holly replied, choosing formality given the gravity of the situation, "it appears from the coordinates that Judkins is at Roland Urich Primary School."

Trouble groaned, and took out his com device. He barked through it to the commanding officer of the Retrieval team the fact that the team was now going to have to perform the mission walking on eggshells to ensure no children were hurt. When he disconnected, he looked at Foaly. "We have minutes until our team reaches the site. Can we get audio on the surveillance feed? I need to see and hear what's going down on the ground."

Foaly looked mildly insulted by Commander Kelp's request, but Holly could see he was at least making an effort to be respectful as he replied, "We've already got audio. It's just that nothing is happening there yet. Sir."

Trouble only grunted in response.

True to Trouble's prediction, the Retrieval squad entered the video feed minutes later. The leader, Captain Orville Poole, radioed back to the control booth that scared children were inside the school, crowded around the windows. Judkins, too, was visible through one of the windows. They were clearly in the right place.

The troops approached cautiously, but once they were within about fifteen feet of the main entrance to the school, external speakers mounted above the door started made a tapping noise for a couple of seconds, followed by a low, scratchy, female voice, with a nervous shaking to it. "Welcome, LEP officers," the voice said.

"Are you getting this?" Poole asked Foaly through his helmet.

"Loud and clear," Foaly replied.

The voice began again. "This school is…" There was a pause and a few deep breaths through the speakers. "…rigged with explosives."

Holly's shoulders slumped. This was bad. It was one thing when it was only Judkins in danger—he was an adult. But a school full of kids? She glanced at Artemis and Butler. Butler was completely stonefaced. Holly could only imagine what was going through his mind—probably the plethora of methods he could use to incapacitate the kidnapper. Artemis was also deep in thought, his expression inscrutable.

Continuing, the voice said, "I've overridden the…"—more heavy breathing—"central computer system. Doors are locked. Windows are locked." It didn't take a genius to see that the kidnapper was telling the truth. Metal bars, meant to lock the school down and make it a place of safety in the event of any future event like the Goblin Rebellion, had come down over the windows. The doors were similarly barricaded.

Trouble looked at Foaly. "Can you get into the school's computer system?"

Foaly started typing furiously on his keyboard. "I should, unless…" He cursed. "No, she's cut the school's system off from the outside. I can't tap in remotely."

"I've a detonator," the voice went on, still shaking. "The LEP's junk. You shouldn't leave…your garbage unincinerated." Holly could tell that, for some reason, the last three words had taken the kidnapper some effort to utter. "And the detonator—I'll use it. Make no mistake."

Trouble spoke into his com device. "Poole, find out what she wants."

Poole, his voice amplified through his special LEP helmet, accordingly asked, "What are you looking for here?"

The voice giggled nervously. "I want gold. Three tons' worth. All in ingots, by noon tomorrow. Or else this…this school goes…to kingdom come. Just like that. I'll do it. I really will."

Poole replied, "That's a lot of gold. We need more time than that."

"I'm not negotiating. By noon tomorrow." And a brief, scratchy noise emanating from the speakers told them that the kidnapper had turned off the microphone.

Poole's voice came through the control booth speakers. "Commander, sir. What would you like us to do?"

Trouble looked…troubled. "Stick around. Keep an eye out on the school in case things go south. We'll work on the ransom request from our end. At the very least we may be able to draw the kidnapper out of the building somehow."

"Roger that, sir. We'll wait here for further orders."

As Holly looked at Trouble, who was currently staring into space, she knew that he had absolutely no idea of what those further orders might be.

**Author's Note: **thanks for the follows and the reviews! You guys are great—keep them coming!


	8. Meeting Mortilla

The group that had been standing in the tiny Control Booth moved over to the Situation Room where everyone had a little more room to breathe. Foaly got to work connecting the large wall-mounted monitors to the school camera feed. As Holly surveyed the people sitting around the large rectangular table—save for Butler, who would have broken any fairy-made chair he sat in—the mood was palpably grim.

When Foaly managed to get the feed up and running, he turned to the rest of the group and swore. "There's no way even the Council can get _three tons _of gold together by tomorrow at noon. There's just no way!"

Trouble grunted again. "This kidnapper must be pretty sophisticated. She managed to cut the school off from the main communications system."

Despite the gloomy atmosphere, Foaly snorted. "_That_ could be accomplished by taking an axe to the school's communications closet."

Holly looked across the table to where Artemis sat. He was staring very hard into the faux wood pattern of the surface before him. She could almost hear the gears turning in his head as he processed all of the information that they had gleaned from the conversation with the kidnapper.

Even in such a serious situation, as Holly watched her best friend think, she couldn't help but remember her trip to the future only days ago. The future Artemis had told her that the present Artemis was in love with her—he was just convinced she didn't feel the same. He had told her to give his present self some "subtle encouragement." How on earth was she going to do that? This wasn't exactly the time to do any flirting. If she even knew _how _to flirt.

Artemis suddenly raised his eyes to Holly's. They widened momentarily as he must have realized she was staring at him. The corners of his mouth turned up into the smallest of smiles, and his eyebrows raised slightly to indicate a question.

All she could do was sheepishly half-smile back and shrug. "Got any bright ideas?" she asked.

"Yes, actually, I do have something," he replied, the barely perceptible smile still present. He cleared his throat and turned to Foaly. "Foaly, is there any way you can use Judkins's phone to get me a video call with the kidnapper? Can you override the fact that he has it turned off?"

"But of course, Mud Boy," he responded, not taking the time to get offended that Artemis would even ask. "Why, though?"

"I need to _see_ her."

Holly jumped in. "What she looks like might not tell you anything—if I had seen _you_ before we met I would have never guessed what you were capable of."

Artemis smiled. "Yes, appearances certainly can be deceiving. Sometimes, however, they can tell you _exactly_ what you need to know."

Trouble groaned at the enigmatic statement. Holly didn't know why, though—he should have been used to not understanding everything that was going on when Artemis was involved. She certainly was.

"All right," Trouble grumbled. "Foaly, get Judkins on the phone. Let's see what Mr. Fowl has for us."

Foaly worked his magic and through the speakers mounted on the ceiling, they again heard ringing. Yet again, the call went to voicemail. "Come on Judkins, answer your phone," Foaly muttered. He tried calling once more.

This time, after several rings, there was a click as the call was answered. "Who is this?" the voice of Hylan Judkins hissed.

Trouble piped up. "This is the LEP, sir. Commander Kelp speaking."

"My phone was turned off for a reason, you know! I don't exactly want to get shot—or blown up—because my phone rings."

This was not exactly the reaction any of them were expecting.

"Sir, I know this might sound…insane," Trouble continued, shooting a significant look at Artemis, "but I need you to take your phone to the kidnapper."

"What? You're right, Kelp. That _is _insane."

Almost against her better judgment, Holly decided to speak. "Sir, this is Captain Short. Think of the children you're trapped with. Do it for them. It would make a great news story, you know—the kidnapped Councillor risking his life to save a bunch of innocent children."

There was silence for a moment. "And maybe a medal, right?" Judkins whispered into the phone.

"Your fellow Council members couldn't deny that you earned one," Holly replied, hamming it up as much as possible.

"Hmm. Well, all right. But if this goes wrong, your careers are on the chopping block if I get out of this alive."

Trouble grimaced at Judkins' words. They didn't faze Holly, though. She'd heard that threat too many times in her career to count.

"Fine. Give me five minutes, then put in a video call to my phone." And with that, Judkins hung up.

Trouble was glaring at Artemis. "Fowl, you had better not make me look like an idiot to a member of the Council."

"Don't fret, Commander. I know exactly what I'm doing." It was hard not to believe Artemis—he seemed completely confident that whatever he was planning would work.

At the appointed time, they sent a video call to Judkins's phone. Trouble filled the camera's view of the Situation Room—he would be the first thing the kidnapper saw if they made contact. It was only a couple of rings this time before the call went through, and a ragged-looking female sprite appeared on the large display on the Situation Room wall. She appeared to be sitting in what must have been the principal's office.

She opened her mouth and spoke again, in the low, scratchy voice from before. "Hello Commander Kelp. Go right ahead. I will listen."

Trouble was deadly serious as he replied. "Ma'am, we heard what you said to my team outside the school. I have to say that your demand is very steep."

"It isn't steep. It's very reasonable."

"Well, actually, it will be imposs—" Trouble began, but was interrupted by Artemis clearing his throat loudly. Trouble glowered at Artemis, but stepped aside so the latter could take his place in front of the camera.

Before Artemis had even spoken a word, the sprite's eyes widened, and a small gasp escaped her. Holly wasn't exactly sure where that had come from—Artemis had given no sign of recognition when they first saw her on the screen. Holly could see that Artemis noticed her obvious surprise, and it perturbed him a bit. But then again, the sprite would hardly have expected a human to be in league with the LEP.

"Madam," he said simply, then paused briefly, watching the screen closely. She simply nodded. He continued, never taking his eyes from the screen. "Thank you."

"For what now?" she replied, clearly a bit uneasy.

"Speaking to me," he answered. Oddly, she seemed to relax a bit after he spoke that time. He spoke again. "What's your name?"

"My name's Mortilla."

"Thank you again." Another pause. "And how are you?"

Mortilla cringed for some reason. Artemis went on. "Are you feeling ill?"

She started shaking a bit. Her hands ran over the desk looking for something. She opened a desk and brought out an unopened pack of sim-gum. She opened the package with trembling hands, counted to the third piece of gum, pulled it out, and threw the rest over her shoulder.

This was getting weird. From what Holly could tell, Artemis had not said one single non-trivial thing. Yet he was getting some interesting reactions from this Mortilla, to say the least. She looked at Artemis—he was smiling slightly.

"I apologize for disconcerting you," he said. She still trembled. Now, she took a handful of pencils from a pencil holder and starting arranging three on the desk. She stared at the fourth she was about to put down, but then put all of the remaining pencils back in the holder.

_Wait_, Holly thought. _I've seen this before_.

"We really do need your help," Artemis continued. Now Mortilla had her eyes closed and her fingers on her temples, but he kept speaking, with pauses between every sentence.

Finally, she snapped. "That is enough! No more talking. Bring the gold. Tomorrow at noon!"

Artemis responded, looking deeply into the camera. "Where's the location? You've not said."

Mortilla started a bit. "I guess not." She thought. "A maintenance tunnel. In Chute 24. Near Mile 214." Her eyes narrowed. "_You_ bring it." She pointed at Artemis. Or rather, she pointed at the phone. But you get the idea.

Butler moved into the camera's view. "I'm coming with him."

Mortilla balked. "No, you aren't." She looked back at Artemis. "He cannot come. He's too dangerous."

"You _are_ perceptive," Artemis commented drily. "But that's fine. Butler won't come."

Butler huffed in protest. "There's no way I'm letting you go alone, Artemis!"

"You are right, my old friend—I can't go alone," Artemis replied. "Three tons is a great deal of gold. I will need a shuttle driver to transport it."

"Fine with me. Bring that elf," Mortilla commanded. "The female elf."

Holly had been standing only slightly in the camera's view. She was surprised when Mortilla referenced her (she was, after all, the only female elf—or female of any kind—in the room). She almost defensively asked this Mortilla character why she had singled Holly out. If Butler was too dangerous to go, did the sprite think Holly was tame and non-threatening? But this was not the time.

Mortilla continued with her demands. "Only you two. Come by yourselves. And no weapons. Absolutely no weapons. I will know."

"Of course, Mortilla," Artemis said, nodding, his face unreadable. "Until tomorrow then." He looked at Foaly and nodded again. Foaly terminated the call. Artemis turned around to face the group.

Trouble was not happy. "What. Was. That."

"Please, Commander. After all these years, I would have thought you would have a bit more trust in me."

"I trust you as far as I can throw you. You got absolutely no information out of _Mortilla_—except for a drop-off point," Trouble growled.

"Well, we _did _find out her name," Holly mentioned.

"Actually, I discovered a great deal more than that—or, rather, confirmed what I suspected. Tell me, Commander. How many standard-size fairy crates would it take to hold three tons of gold?"

Kelp shrugged and looked at Foaly, who replied, "About twelve."

A smile spread across Artemis's face. "Tomorrow, all we shall need is one."

There was silence for a moment, before Trouble said, "No way. Even a goblin would know you can't fit three tons of gold into one crate." Holly, Butler, and Foaly wisely knew to stay silent until Artemis had revealed his full plan.

"I don't mean we will need only one crate. We will only need one crate _filled with gold_. This Mortilla will only look in one crate, at least at first. The other eleven need only be weighted the same. Perhaps foil-covered chocolate ingots would be a nice touch to give some appearance of gold. I would suggest we place a tracer in one of the crates."

Foaly started to raise an objection, but Artemis cut him off. "Not one of your nuclear-powered tracers, Foaly. Any self-respecting fairy criminal these days will have a scanner that detects nuclear-powered technology. The thing about your fairy technology is that you often forget about old technology that humans still rely upon. On this premise I recently re-designed a number of fairy technologies to rely upon an almost archaic—at least to you—power source: the chemical battery."

Foaly, his mouth still open from his attempt at objection, now closed it, and a thoughtful expression came upon his face. "Hm. Yeah, that might work, actually."

"Of course it will," Artemis replied. "Fortunately for you, I come prepared. I brought a couple of battery-powered tracers with me on this visit."

"What I still don't understand," Trouble interjected, "is how you are so sure that Mortilla will only look in one crate."

Something like pain flashed across Artemis's features, and then was gone when he answered, "Because I would have done the same when I was fifteen. Except I would have only checked crates five and ten."

Foaly's head jerked back. "Of course! Why didn't I see it?"

"Yes," Artemis responded. "Our villain is in stage one of the Atlantis Complex."

**Author's Note: **you guys are awesome! Thanks for the follows, favourites, and reviews. I hope you continue to enjoy the story…and please continue reviewing, too!


	9. Feelings for the Mud Boy

As Holly entered Police Plaza, she felt cautiously optimistic that they might actually be able to save the school. The Council had been hastily convened, and once the situation had been fully explained, they were willing to give the go-ahead. The only problem had been convincing them of the wisdom of Artemis's plan. Then again, they had no other choice, given that the Council's gold was held in various well-hidden vaults around the world, and it would take days to gather three tons' worth. If they wanted to meet the deadline, they had to cut corners—much like Mulch Diggums' old construction business.

Across the Plaza, Holly saw Butler, no doubt enjoying the luxury of standing at his full height. Sitting on a bench beside him was Artemis, head in his hands.

"What's up?" Holly asked as she approached. "Having second thoughts about the plan?"

He looked up, dropping his hands to his knees when he realized she was standing there. He smiled slightly, though his eyes still seemed distant. "No second thoughts. The plan will succeed. I know what it is like to be in the grips of the Atlantis Complex. While those watching the sufferer from the outside see only chaos and unpredictability in his or her behaviour, everything seems so logical and predictable from the inside. Five was safety. Four was death. For Mortilla, three is her number of security, and as was the case me, four creates terror."

"That's all very interesting—but what's bothering you?" she prodded, sitting down beside him on the bench.

He frowned, looking absently out across the Plaza. "I will admit that something is troubling me. This Mortilla seems so familiar to me—like I have seen her before but I cannot place the memory." He exhaled, seeming a bit frustrated. "This occasionally happens to me now—ever since I was revived." He gave a short laugh. "Not that I'm complaining, of course."

Holly involuntarily shuddered. "I still hate to think about those six months when you were…gone," she said softly. "It was one of the worst times of my life—wondering if you would ever come back, if your plan would work."

Artemis suddenly looked up at her. She knew he must have heard something in her tone—a tone almost never heard in Holly's voice.

Holly couldn't help but look back. Those eyes that could be so cold and calculating were filled with something else now. A guarded hope.

She wanted to say something, anything. But it seemed like her powers of speech had deserted her. And then she realized after a moment that it wasn't so bad, not talking.

Artemis opened his mouth to speak, softly. "Holly—"

Before he could get another word out, they heard Foaly's voice calling loudly, accompanied by the clip-clop of his hooves on the cobblestone ground of the Plaza. "There you are. I've been looking for you guys."

They both nearly jumped at the sound of Foaly's approach. Though their non-verbal exchange had only lasted maybe five seconds, Holly felt like a lot had happened.

Artemis almost leapt to his feet from the bench. "Foaly. What is it?"

Foaly seemed a bit surprised by Artemis's evident agitation. "Uh, well, not much. I was just going to tell you that I ran the tests on your battery-powered tracers."

Suddenly, Artemis's expression went from distracted to smug. "And what were the results? I know I don't really have to ask, but I want to hear you say the words."

Foaly sighed. "You were right," he mumbled, quietly. Then, more loudly, "But that is just a loophole—and I'm going to close it right up on my next model. So you're going to have to think of something else next time, Mud Boy."

Holly decided to toy with her friend. "Let me get this straight, Foaly. You wanted Artemis to be wrong—thus throwing our plan out the window and making it that much more difficult to save an entire school—just to soothe your pride?"

Foaly thought for a moment. "Well, it doesn't sound great when you put it like that, but yeah."

Holly laughed and punched Foaly in the shoulder affectionately. "I can't believe you two sometimes. One of the great rivalries of all time." She stole another glance at Artemis, and was surprised to see him looking back at her, much as he had been looking at her before Foaly had entered the scene. Their moment had been interrupted this time, but they would get another. Holly would make sure of that.

Of course, Foaly didn't notice anything going on between Holly and Artemis, so he merely continued his interruption. "All the crates are on schedule to be ready to go to the drop off point tomorrow. Mortilla is going to be swimming in chocolate ingots by the end of this—at least before we cart her off to jail."

Holly saw the troubled expression again fall upon Artemis's countenance. He looked again at Holly, and appeared for a moment as if he was going to say something—but then turned and walked away. Butler followed along after him. She had almost forgotten Butler was there, like it was just she and Artemis. _Foaly could learn a few lessons in tact from Butler_, she thought.

"Where are you going?" she called after them.

Artemis stopped walking and turned around, now about twenty feet away. "To call Mother. I promised I would call when I got the opportunity to let her know I got here safely." He grinned. "For some reason she gets anxious when I leave home to come to Haven."

Holly laughed as he turned again and continued on his way. But she couldn't help but allow her mind to dwell on how he had looked at her, and couldn't stop wondering what he had been about to say when Foaly had interrupted them.

When Artemis and Butler had walked out of sight, leaving the Plaza, Holly turned back around to Foaly. "All right, centaur, let's go see how those crates are doing."

* * *

The next morning, all was ready for the half-hour journey to the designated site. The shuttle was loaded with the crates of "gold" and Holly was itching to get going, even though they wouldn't leave until later in the morning.

She found Foaly, Artemis, and Butler waiting for her arrival in Police Plaza, near the same bench where she had spoken with them the day before.

"About time you got here," Foaly teased. "You do realize this mission starts in three hours?"

"Shut up, centaur."

"Nice comeback," he said, smirking.

She looked at Butler and Artemis. Both looked tired, no doubt from a restless night trying to sleep on fairy-sized beds at Haven's finest hotel, Chateau Haven.

"Good morning, you two," she said, nodding.

"Good morning, Captain," Butler returned, stiffly. _He must be annoyed about something_, Holly realized. It was probably the fact that he was being separated from his principal on a dangerous mission. She knew Butler hated to feel like he wasn't doing his job.

"Hello, Holly," Artemis chimed in. Suddenly, his normally pale face was flushed. "You, uh, you look nice this morning," he said awkwardly.

Holly was taken aback. This was probably the first time Artemis had complimented her appearance. She hadn't done too much differently than usual in getting ready that morning, either. _Well_, she thought_, other than actually looking in the mirror before I left home_. Maybe also spending a minute or two styling her hair.

What astounded her more, however, was the fact that instead of feeling like she wanted to hit Artemis for having the gall to compliment her, she wanted to hug him. She _enjoyed_ being complimented by him. Maybe her advice to No1 wasn't so bad after all.

"Th-thanks," she stuttered.

The group was silent for a moment. Holly became conscious that Foaly was staring at her. Turning to him, she said, "What?" perhaps a little more belligerently than she had intended.

"Aren't you going to punch him?" Foaly asked.

"Shut up."

"Wow, Captain, you're certainly full of zingers this morning!" he replied, chortling.

Butler chose this moment to speak. "I have to again register my concern that I am not allowed to be part of this mission. Who knows what—or who—is waiting for you at the drop-off site? You could be walking right into a trap."

"I'm sorry, old friend," Artemis replied. "You understand the dangers of us going alone, but I know you also understand very well the dangers of going against Mortilla's wishes and bringing you along. She needs to feel as if everything is going precisely as to plan. If she saw you her paranoia might cause her to do something rash. Besides, you're leaving me in good hands with Captain Short."

"An _unarmed _Captain Short," Butler mumbled.

"I agree with Artemis on this, Butler," Holly broke in. "Even if we covered you in camo-foil, those crates have filled the shuttle to capacity. There wouldn't be room for you in there."

"Well, of course _you_ would agree with him," Butler said, almost growling. Artemis quizzically raised an eyebrow at his bodyguard. Butler responded by stalking off to the other end of the Plaza, clearly still irritated by the situation.

Artemis watched Butler walk away, an amused expression upon his face. "I'm afraid I frustrate poor Butler to no end," he told Foaly and Holly. "I remember one time when I was testing my hacking abilities by making some attempts on a foreign government website. Butler apparently felt I had developed enough enemies by age thirteen than to deliberately try to anger powerful organizations, and no matter how many times he tried to convince me to cease my infiltration of the website—which was painfully simple—I kept going. I believe he felt vindicated when two foreign government agents appeared on my doorstep a few days after the incident."

Holly heard only the beginning of Artemis's anecdote. She had lost focus on what he was saying when she found her eyes drawn to his mouth as he spoke. She thought back to that trip back in time years ago, when she had kissed him. It had felt very right, very natural back then. She knew it would feel the same way now, if she had the guts to do it again—not that she could really do it with Foaly standing there watching. Her eyes lifted to his, and she felt her heart beat faster.

She felt almost jerked back to reality when she perceived Foaly sidle up to her. She turned her head to look at him. He was focusing his gaze very intently at Artemis, who now looked at the two of them, perplexed.

"What the heck are you doing?" she asked Foaly.

"Artemis must have something on his face from this angle, because you sure have been concentrating hard on whatever it is," the centaur replied.

She punched him on the shoulder as she frantically searched her mind for something to say to help her feel a little less like an idiot. It didn't help that she felt her face turning warm. "My…my mind must have wandered off. I'm trying to focus on the mission. Getting mentally prepared," she finished lamely. Looking back at Artemis, she saw he was trying not to smile.

"Well," Artemis said, breaking the slightly awkward silence that reigned after Holly's attempted cover-up, "I am going to see if I cannot alleviate some of Butler's concerns. I will meet you both in the Situation Room in a half hour so we can go through the plan once more." And with that, he walked off to join Butler.

Holly and Foaly also started wandering out of the Plaza, in the general direction of Foaly's control booth. As they walked, Holly punched him again in the arm for good measure, feeling vengeful from being called out for staring at Artemis.

"Hey," Foaly protested, rubbing the spot where she had hit him. Then, in a moment his eyes changed from hurt to suspicious. "Why so sensitive? Have I hit a nerve?"

"Are we going to play twenty questions? I thought we had a mission to prepare for," Holly said, knowing that her attempts at evasion were really leading Foaly straight to the truth.

"You don't have…_feelings_ for the Mud Boy, do you?" Foaly asked incredulously, eyebrows lifted.

Holly didn't know exactly how to respond. The smart thing would have been to just say "No," but instead, after a brief hesitation, she simply replied, "Shut up."


	10. The Drop-off

When all involved in the mission had assembled in the Situation Room, Artemis commenced his review of the plan. He and Holly would arrive at the designated site in the shuttle, allegedly loaded with twelve crates full of gold ingots, just before noon. Mortilla would show up to collect the money, presumably in a shuttle of her own, and would inspect the third crate before loading it into her vehicle—hopefully. She would then remotely disarm the bombs at the school—again, hopefully.

A young LEP officer who would be on the team to track Mortilla following the drop-off raised his hand. Artemis acknowledged him with a nod, and the young elf asked, "Mr Fowl, how do we know she will just disarm the bombs? Isn't it possible that she will set them off anyways?"

"This woman has no malice towards Judkins or the children at the school," Artemis answered. "She wants money, and feels that holding such people hostage is her quickest way to get a great deal of it. Once she feels like she securely has the gold, it will be a weight off of her guilt-ridden shoulders to disarm the bombs." Artemis briefly looked around for more questions before continuing. "Once Mortilla takes off with the gold and our tracers, it will be a simple matter for the Retrieval team to apprehend her. In the meantime, our other Retrieval squad at the school will take care of the liberation of the building—with the all-clear from the explosives experts."

Trouble nodded at Artemis. "That's the plan, ladies and gentlemen. Now, let's get to it."

The assembled group dispersed to take care of their various roles. Holly and Artemis made their way to the prepared shuttle and were off to the drop-off point in less than ten minutes. It would take them about thirty-five minutes to reach it.

As they flew through one of the chutes that led out of Haven, Artemis spoke, "There really is something about this Mortilla person that causes me to wonder if we have met before—but I cannot place her face anywhere in my memories." He paused. "I hope that I am not putting us all in danger because I cannot summon some crucial recollection."

"Don't worry, Arty. It's my job to get into danger—and then get back out again."

He chuckled. It was that nice sound that Holly didn't hear often enough. "Well," Artemis said, "you certainly do very well at both of those."

They fell into a comfortable silence. Holly wondered what he was thinking. After a few minutes of quiet, she was about to ask him just that when she noticed him rubbing the back of his neck, grimacing a bit. "What's the matter?" she asked.

He looked at her, realizing she had noticed him. "I have decided that I truly need to consider buying some property down in Haven so that Butler and I can each have a human-sized bed to sleep on when we come down. Last night was not a comfortable one for me—yet compared to how Butler fared, I believe my night was restful."

Holly wondered how she should reply. _Subtle encouragement_. She decided on honesty. "It would be great if you got a place down here," she replied. "Then you might visit more often."

In a joking tone—one rarely heard in Artemis's voice—he said, "I'm surprised you don't find my visits on LEP business tiresome enough on their own."

She felt nervousness actually make her palms, now gripping the steering wheel of the shuttle, sweat. _Just remember_, she thought_, he _does _feel the same way about you_. "I would love it if you visited more—honestly. You're…you're my best friend," she finished. She felt the speech had been delivered a bit awkwardly, but it got the point across.

Artemis didn't respond immediately. Holly stole a glance at his face in one of the mirrors surrounding the pilot's seat. Unfortunately, it didn't tell Holly much, as his expression was inscrutable. Thankfully, he spoke only a moment later, after clearing his throat. "Then it's settled. I'll start looking at Haven real estate once we've completed this mission. Something with high ceilings, I think." It was only after he had finished speaking that Holly saw one of the corners of his mouth turn upwards.

_Something with high ceilings_. She remembered the high ceilings in the house of her future. She had a feeling she would be seeing that house again soon.

They reached the designated maintenance tunnel about five minutes before the noon deadline. Holly backed her shuttle so that its rear touched the entrance to the tunnel. This particular shuttle was too large to fit into the tunnel—after all, it had to carry twelve full-sized crates. She set the shuttle to hover and opened the back hatch completely.

She was about to switch on the conveyor mechanism that would off-load the crates in the tunnel when they heard Mortilla's voice yell "No, leave them! Come out here. Into the tunnel!"

Holly and Artemis looked at each other. "I'll go," Holly said. "You're a civilian—you stay here."

"Ah, but you see, you are unarmed," Artemis replied, smiling slightly. "You need strength in numbers. I'll come with you."

Holly was about to protest, but then decided he was right.

As they emerged out of the wall of crates that filled the back of the shuttle, they saw the small, weathered sprite, hovering up and down on furiously beating wings. Holly knew that to be a sign of stress in some sprites. Mortilla was clearly nervous about how the drop off would go. The sprite was also holding what Holly knew to be an obsolete model neutrino, probably acquired from the same decommissioned weapons dump that the detonator and bomb materials had come from. Holly shook her head. The LEP really needed to get their garbage disposal system under control.

"Given that it seems she is armed," Artemis mumbled to Holly under his breath, "I suggest we try to follow her orders." Holly nodded in response.

Artemis raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. "We are coming out. According to your wishes."

Holly noticed Mortilla flinch. From earlier discussions, Holly knew what Artemis was doing—speaking in fours to drive up the pressure on the kidnapper. The more insecure and uneasy Mortilla felt, the more she would be drawn to the number three, and the greater the chance she would only check the third crate.

Mortilla gripped the neutrino harder. Artemis asked, "Is something wrong, friend?"

She flinched again and tried to be threatening as she waved the neutrino. "Not your friend. Over there, now!" she snarled, gesturing an area of the tunnel about ten feet from the rear shuttle door.

Artemis and Holly, both with hands in the air, went to the spot she had indicated. When they had reached it, Artemis pointed to the back of the shuttle. "There is your gold."

Mortilla closed her eyes, and muttered quietly. Holly could tell she was counting to three repeatedly.

Artemis was relentless. "Feel free to inspect. All is in order. It's all _for_ you." He put a slight emphasis on the word "for." It worked—Mortilla was now on her feet instead of hovering, and Holly could see her shaking.

Mortilla entered the back of the shuttle. Holly held her breath as she saw the sprite tap the first, then the second, and finally the third crate with the neutrino. All three of them were full of gold ingots, to appease Trouble's pessimism. Artemis had been confident only the third needed to be filled, but Trouble hadn't been willing to risk lives on the hunch of a human.

Of course, Artemis was right. Mortilla shot a blast through the third crate and gold ingots spilled onto the metal shuttle floor, creating a huge racket. The sprite picked up one of the pieces and inspected it. Apparently satisfied that it was real, the expression on her face changed from suspicion and anger to glee. "My plan worked! My plan worked!" she squealed in delight.

Now that she knew there was gold in the crates—or at least in _some _of the crates—Holly knew Artemis would begin speaking in groups of three. Mortilla needed to feel secure.

He did just that. "Now, the detonator?" he asked.

Mortilla pulled the small device out of her pocket. She pressed a large button. "There you go," she said, still giddy. "Bombs are deactivated." She turned towards the mouth of the tunnel and threw the detonator into the void. It would be falling for quite awhile.

Holly connected through to Foaly using her helmet. "Foaly, has anything happened with the school?"

"No, it's still there."

"Send the bomb squad in. Mortilla has apparently deactivated the bombs. Once the bomb squad has given the all clear you can evacuate the school."

"Roger that, Captain. The squad is moving in as we speak."

Holly suddenly noticed something. As she had approached the tunnel in their shuttle minutes earlier, she had seen no other shuttle—or vehicle of any kind—in the general vicinity. "Hey, how did you get here, Mortilla? Where's your ride?" She didn't bother to count her words.

Mortilla stopped her jubilating and looked at Holly. "Oh, yes, right." She switched her gaze to Artemis. "Remember me, human? Ho Chi Minh?"

Holly looked at Artemis. His face had turned pale—or, at any rate, paler than it usually was—and realization was flooding it.

"You…you are the sprite who gave me the Book?"

"That is correct," Mortilla replied through a wicked smile, eyes narrowed. "I gave the book. _You_ gave pain. Very excruciating pain.

"The detox," Artemis whispered to himself before addressing Mortilla. "But you wanted it. That's how I got you to give me the Book. You cannot be angry at me for simply giving you something for which you asked."

"Twisting my words!" Mortilla screeched. "You hurt me. But now you—you get pain. Maybe death, too." Her smile had turned grim, as she reached into another pocket and pulled out a similar detonator as before. "This one's yours."

Artemis took a step forwards. Holly saw pain in his eyes. "The kidnapping of Judkins, the taking of the school—those were not because of me, were they?"

Mortilla gave a short laugh. "No, you fool. You're a bonus."

Holly had been putting her observational skills to work. There was a chance she could disarm Mortilla while she was distracted with Artemis. The sprite started monologuing about all the hard knocks she'd gone through, and Holly thought that was about as good a chance as she was going to get. She started rushing Mortilla, but unfortunately she kicked a small rock as she moved quickly forwards, which caused a skittering noise across the metal floor. Mortilla was thus alerted in time to raise her neutrino at Holly and get off a shot—and Mortilla was shooting to kill.

Holly had good reflexes, but even the small momentum she had gained in rushing in Mortilla's direction put her off balance when she saw Mortilla shooting at her. Thankfully, Artemis was quicker physically than he used to be. He launched himself at Holly and tackled her out of the way of the neutrino's lethal blast just in time. The beam managed to graze the arm of his suit jacket, searing a long tear in the sleeve. By the time both extricated themselve from each other and got up, Mortilla was closing the rear hatch of the LEP shuttle. Though Holly ran towards it, the shuttle pulled forwards into the chute even before the hatch had fully closed. There was no way to reach it now.

Usually, this would not have been a problem. Foaly knew where they were and could have another shuttle there in a half hour to pick them up. The problem was that apparently Mortilla had planted explosives in the maintenance tunnel in an effort to kill—or maim—Artemis. And that was a fairly significant problem.

Holly whirled around to see Artemis getting to his feet and dusting himself off. He examined the seared arm of his suit and muttered something about his favourite jacket being ruined. Holly rolled her eyes. "I'm very sorry about your _clothes_, but we need to find a way out of here or they'll have to take us out of here in a matchbox." She connected with Foaly. "Foaly, we need a ride out of here ASAP. Mortilla took our shuttle along with the gold and has apparently loaded the area with explosives. I expect she is waiting until she is clear of the area before she's going to detonate."

Foaly's nervous voice filled her helmet as he replied, "The nearest LEP vessel is five minutes away. I'll send it your way. In the meantime, try and find a way to either get out of that tunnel or some way to shelter yourselves from the blast." Holly knew that to have any LEP vehicles nearer might have compromised the drop-off—even the simplest fairy ship had the technology to detect other vessels within a certain radius. But that was cold comfort now.

"Will do." Holly turned to Artemis. "No one can get to us for at least five minutes. That's not enough time."

Artemis was looking around the maintenance tunnel, clearly racking his brain.

"We're sitting ducks here," Holly exhaled, exasperated—but she too was looking around for a solution.

"If only I knew where she had planted the bombs," Artemis said absently, looking at the ceiling of the tunnel. Suddenly, a light seemed to ignite in his eyes. "Our villain is likely no explosives expert. We may be able to survive this after all."

"What?" Holly asked. She really wished he would learn to give explanations _before_ uttering cryptic statements.

"Look," he replied, pointing at a small trapdoor in the ceiling near the back of the tunnel. "For the fairies who service the tunnel's lights. I would bet Fowl Manor that she placed the explosives inside. Short of major excavation, there is no other way she could have planted explosives that would affect this tunnel. And, unless the Haven Safety Code has changed, the maintenance sub-tunnels are reinforced to protect against geological disturbance, to allow a fairy caught in a maintenance tunnel during an earthquake to find refuge." Holly would have rolled her eyes had the situation not been so serious. Of _course_ Artemis would have memorized something as dull as the Haven Safety Code.

Artemis continued. "I wouldn't dare attempt to disarm the bomb at this point—we have no idea when it is going to detonate—and as long as she has used more than a nominal amount of explosives there still should be some damage in the main tunnel—but there shouldn't be a complete cave-in."

"All right, thanks for the explanation—but where should we hunker down and brace ourselves?"

"Without getting into the sub-tunnel to see where she has placed the bombs along the roof of the tunnel, I have absolutely no idea."

Holly opened her mouth and was about to say something along the lines of "Well, _that's _helpful", when an explosion rocked her off her feet. When she hit the ground, her LEP training kicked in. She rolled into a ball, covering her head with her hands. Luckily, her helmet had protected her ears from the shockwave, as well as the small pieces of steel and stone which were falling from the ceiling below. Other chunks caught her arms and torso, but her magic healed the minor bumps and cuts almost as soon as they happened. She did her best to save at least some of her magic for Artemis, who didn't have the same protective gear she did.

The whole thing lasted less than ten seconds, though of course it felt much longer. Her first thought was Artemis. She unrolled herself and saw that he, too, was curled into a ball, with his arms sheltering his head. His suit was now torn in multiple places, with some of the tears revealing bleeding cuts of various sizes. He was just unrolling himself and looked over at her. "Are you okay?" he asked. His eyes widened, and he placed his hands on his ears, then removed them. "I can't—I can't hear," he shouted. "The blast—it's deafened me."

Holly rushed over to him and covered his ears with her hands. "Heal," she whispered, looking directly in his eyes. She felt the magic flowing through her fingers and into him. Even after she knew his ears would be good as new, she allowed the magic to heal his cuts as well.

"Can you hear me?" she asked.

Artemis patted his right ear, "Yes, it appears your magic did the trick. Thank you."

"Don't mention it," she replied.

With both of them healed up, they were able to finally get a look at their surroundings. Thankfully, the reinforced tunnel lining had done its job in absorbing much of the explosion's energy, but there were still large chunks blown out of the ceiling. In fact, there were three large holes along the roof, one at the back of the tunnel, one in the middle, and one near the front, with large heaps of rocks underneath each one. It didn't take a genius to figure out that she had 'strategically' planted the bombs along the sub-tunnel above. Luckily, she and Artemis had both been about mid-way between the one in the middle and the one at the front, near the entrance.

Holly realized in dismay that the fact that the steel lining did not extend fully to the entrance of the tunnel meant that the pile of debris was much larger than the other two. In fact, the rubble blocked the entrance, and probably extended up past the top of the original cave entrance. Holly had the feeling that maybe Mortilla had intended for that to happen—that if they survived the bombs, they would not survive being trapped.

Dim light still existed in the tunnel, thanks to a couple of emergency lights lining the walls that had made it through the explosion. All of the other so-called emergency lights appeared to be out of commission.

Holly looked at Artemis. He was frowning at the blocked tunnel entrance, the gears in his mind turning. "I think we ought to leave the rubble alone—depending upon the construction of the sub-tunnel, the bomb may have damaged the rock above as well as created the blockage. If we try to shift the rubble too much, we may bring even more down upon our heads. But we do need to ensure there is at least a couple of small holes for airflow. Then, we wait for the LEP to get here and dig us out with their equipment."

"All right, I guess that sounds like as good a plan as any," Holly replied, sighing.

Together, they were able to shift some of the smaller rocks in such a way that small airholes emerged, large enough for Holly's fist to pass through, but nowhere near large enough fo her, much less a human, to traverse.

Once they had finished securing themselves against suffocation, Artemis trudged over to the wall, about halfway down the tunnel. Holly knew that he had chosen to move back from the entrance area so that any potential cave-ins resulting from the arrival of the LEP did not land upon him. She followed suit and retreated from the front as well.

Artemis leaned his back against the tunnel wall and slid down until he was sitting. He scowled in frustration, staring straight ahead at the opposite wall. "Yet another thoughtless deed by Artemis Fowl results in mayhem and pain to everyone around him." He looked up at Holly. "And I am very sorry that your life was put in danger another time on my account."

Holly was a bit surprised at the turn things were taking. Once they had determined they wouldn't suffocate while waiting for the LEP to rescue them, she had been in a pretty decent mood—at least, compared to how she was feeling before. Artemis apparently didn't share her relief. She went and sat beside him.

"Hey, you were younger. You've changed a lot since then."

He shook his head. "That fails to change the fact that I am tortured every day by the people I have hurt along my path of _transformation_," he said, adding a mocking tone to the last word. "People like you, who would never dream of sinking to the kinds of depths to which I have sunk at times. I cannot begin to number my regrets."

Holly had known Artemis harboured guilt for past wrongs. That, after all, had been the trigger for his Atlantis Complex. But even now that he had completely recovered from the illness, he apparently still felt deep remorse. Though she would have, at one time, thought exactly the opposite, she now felt that almost no one deserved such feelings less.

She reached across him and took him by the shoulders, gently turning him to face her. Taking a deep breath, she said, "Artemis Fowl, I'm not going to tell you that you've never made a bad decision—you obviously have. But for a long time now you've worked hard to help people, human and fairy. You've helped many times more people than you ever hurt. Come on—you even sacrificed your own life for billions of people you never met. And those people will never know about it to thank you for it."

Through her little speech, Artemis had not been able to meet her eyes. She needed to make sure he was hearing her, so she lifted his chin until he was looking at her. "Arty, we've just survived the umpteenth attempt on our lives. Even in fairy terms, life is short. You have to let the past go and just move forward. You can't live your life in regrets."

Artemis was certainly meeting her eyes now. And there was something else there. Holly's heart started to beat faster, and she dropped her fingers, which had lingered on his face as she spoke. She couldn't have looked away if she wanted to, with atmosphere of the dim tunnel full of something like electricity—and she had a hunch that Artemis was experiencing the same thing.

"Regrets…" he murmured. He seemed to hesitate, but then he took a deep breath and spoke softly. "Right now…right now I have a feeling that if I don't tell you something, I will regret it for the rest of my life."

Holly's heart was racing so quickly that she felt it might burst before long. "What is it?" she asked, a bit breathlessly. She hoped it would be what she had been waiting for so long to hear. Though the whole scene had a surreal quality to it, she felt more alive now than she ever had.

"Holly," he began, "I know that we said we would leave behind all that happened when we returned to the past to save JayJay; however, I'm afraid I have not been very successful in that endeavour. I've thought about that…that kiss so many times." He took a deep breath, and exhaled heavily. "There are incredible impediments to us ever becoming…involved with each other, but the most formidable to me always seemed to be your lack of desire to change things between us. On the other hand…" he trailed off, before continuing with narrowed eyes and the smallest hint of a smile. "On the other hand, it seems that recently you have been giving off some _confusing _signals."

Holly arched her eyebrows, and put on an exaggeratedly nonchalant front that she knew he would see through in an instant. "I don't know _what _you are talking about," she replied, trying, but failing to keep the smile off of her face.

Artemis too was losing his battle in attempting to keep a straight face. "I think you know _precisely_ what I mean. When _Foaly_ notices something, you are being obvious."

"All right, Mud Boy, smile all you want. You were saying?" she said gruffly, shaking her head, yet grinning at the same time.

"As you wish. Holly, you may have noticed that there are few situations in which I find myself less comfortable than when I am expressing my…my feelings. But I can go no longer without telling you that _you _are the most important person to me in this world, either above or below the surface. I feel tremendous respect and admiration towards you. And more than that…I…I find myself to be completely in love with you." Silence hung in the air for a moment. Insecurity creeping into his features and voice, Artemis said, "I would be grateful for any response you can give."

Holly gave a laugh, cut short by the almost suffocating feeling of happiness filling her chest. There were so many things she wanted to say. "Arty, I've thought about what happened in the gorilla cage, too. Much more often than I should have. But, like you, I guess I thought there were too many things in the way. Lately those things haven't seemed as important to me—at least, they aren't as important as the fact that…that I feel the same way about you."

For a long moment, neither said anything. The words each had spoken seemed to reverberate around the cave, at least in their minds. Holly had never felt her eyes so glued to those of another person as she felt then, looking at Artemis. But then she noticed his eyes drop slightly, and she knew what was coming, and welcomed it. He gently took her face in his hands, gingerly, as if he was afraid he would break it. As he moved towards her, it didn't take her long to close the gap.

Their first kiss had been the result of her impulses, born out of deep and giddy relief that she had been able to save him from the savage beating he had taken from the gorilla that night at the zoo. When Artemis had softly kissed her forehead before going to offer himself up to Opal Koboi, she had felt panic dulled by the sedative overpowering her, which would later give way to a profound ache as she knelt over his lifeless form.

And even though her first two experiences relating to Artemis's lips were widely different, the third was something else entirely.

Holly was a woman of action. Artemis was a man of contemplation. But all either could do when they broke apart from the kiss was smile at each other. Goofy, dopey smiles, that both would have denied having upon their faces had any third party asked, and that they would have mercilessly mocked on anyone else.

It was Artemis who first spoke after a long silence. "I suppose waiting for the LEP to arrive doesn't seem so bad now. In fact, I wouldn't mind if they took a little longer than a half hour."

Holly was surprised at the tone of her voice—and her words—as she answered, "Me neither. I think I could stay here all day."

If possible, Artemis's smile grew even wider. "Why, Captain Short, I do think you are going soft."

Holly knew she would never act like this in public—she had never been a believer in public displays of affection and felt Artemis would probably be on the same page—but they were all alone now.

But as much as she would have enjoyed continuing talking, and possibly some additional kissing, she was slightly dismayed to feel that the adrenaline she had felt at the explosion—as well as the different kind of rush at Artemis's words and their subsequent kiss—was wearing off. It was being replaced by the exhaustion that followed all but the most minor of healings. Looking at Artemis stifling a yawn, she knew he was feeling it, too.

"Our bodies need some rest. From the healing, and all," she said, needlessly. Artemis would have known what was happening the instant he felt the exhaustion kicking in. He simply nodded, leaning his head back on the wall. Holly expected him to close his eyes, but instead, he grinned at her and held the arm nearest her away from his body. In almost an instant, she knew what he meant. She moved so his arm went around her shoulders, and leaned her head against his upper chest. The weight of his arm around her felt so natural.

As she allowed herself to fall into her restorative slumber, Holly silently thanked future Artemis for his very good advice.


	11. Not Out of the Woods

Holly gradually awoke to the low noise of a shuttle outside the tunnel, muffled by the debris that had blocked the entry. The LEP had arrived, and would momentarily be excavating a hole through the rock for them to climb through. It would have to be done by machine—not even Mulch Diggums would have attempted to dig through the rubble that was so unstable. The chances of a cave-in were high, and another patented Foaly machine would be the best way of creating a secure way through.

Holly knew that, although what had happened before her little nap felt dreamlike, it had really happened. She had proof in the fact that her head was still leaning against Artemis's chest, with his arm holding her close. They weren't out of the woods yet, but Holly knew—for a fact—that they would make it out of there. After all, she had seen with her own eyes that both she and Artemis were alive six years in the future.

Artemis was still asleep. He had required more healing than she had, so he also required more rest. But, their ride had come, so he needed to get up. She tapped him gently a few times, then shook him a bit when he didn't respond the first time. He began stirring, and eventually blinked his bleary eyes. He looked down at Holly uncomprehendingly for a moment, and then, like Holly, he must have remembered what had happened before he had fallen asleep. Suddenly, he was much more alert. He smiled a bit sheepishly at her, which she returned. They would have a lot to talk about when they were safely back in Haven City—which would be interesting to see, as both of them generally shunned opportunities to talk about their feelings.

Artemis looked over at the blocked tunnel entrance, and when he looked back at Holly his face had turned serious and business-like. To Holly's regret, he took his arm from around her shoulders.

"I gather they will be using machinery to dig us out, due to the instability. I estimate the pile of debris is two, maybe two-and-a-half meters thick, with more above ready to come down. It would be too dangerous for a dwarf," Artemis mused.

"Agreed. Even if they could track Mulch down, even _he_ wouldn't attempt it." Mulch was currently somewhere in Africa, trying to 'research' some diamond mines.

Artemis stood and walked a little closer to the rubble. A sound almost like a drill began as a dull roar, growing gradually louder until a large metal cylinder re-emerged on Holly and Artemis's side of the wall of debris. It was then pulled out by the operator, leaving a hole. Holly was a bit fuzzy on the details, but she knew that in addition to drilling horizontally, the machine put tremendous outward pressure on the hole it created, to ensure that the rocks were packed together tightly around the hole. Foaly had only tried to explain it to her about a dozen times before giving up.

The catch was, even though the hole was more or less stable, even a small disturbance in the bedrock surrounding it could cause the whole thing to collapse again. Which meant that Holly and Artemis still faced considerable risk. The LEP would have closed the entire area off from vehicular traffic. They couldn't risk a shuttle driven by an unexperienced driver scraping against the chute wall or something.

"All right, people," they heard through the hole. Holly recognized the voice as that of Chix Verbil—to her regret, now a LEPRetrieval captain. "Crawl through the hole very slowly, one at a time. One false move could send twenty tons of rock down on you."

"Thanks for the optimism, Chix," Holly called back.

"Hello Holly and Artemis!"

Holly's ears perked up at the familiar sound of No1's voice. "Hey, No1! What brings you up here?"

"I volunteered as soon as I heard they wanted a warlock to be on site for your rescue. I thought I'd better make sure two of my favourite people were in the best possible hands," No1 said seriously.

"There's no one I'd rather trust with my life, buddy," Holly replied.

Artemis was studying the hole, when Holly looked over at him, beckoning towards the hole with her head. "All right, Arty, go on."

He shook his head. "No, I think you had better go first."

"I don't know if this is your way of trying to be a gentleman, but as the civilian, you should get to safety first."

He gave a single laugh, but Holly could see he felt uneasy. "Blame chivalry on me if you wish, but I was merely thinking practically. The circumference of this hole is big enough for the average elf to crawl through with little difficulty. An adult human, however—even one a third of Butler's girth, such as I—would find it a tight squeeze. You can get through quickly now, while complications may arise as I navigate it. There is absolutely no sense in leaving you behind me, still trapped, if something happens."

She saw his point, but didn't like the idea of "complications" arising while he was crawling through. "Chix, can you make this thing any bigger?"

"The machine's readings tell me that it has made it as large as it can without compromising the structural integrity of the rubble to critical levels. So…no," the sprite answered.

Holly looked back at Artemis, and he returned her gaze. She couldn't see a logical reason to protest Artemis's plan, but she still had a bad feeling about leaving him in the cave behind her. Artemis's expression seemed to be challenging her to disagree with him.

"Okay, fine," Holly burst out. "But let the record show that I wanted to go last." She stepped closer to Artemis and lowered her voice. "Be careful, okay, Arty?"

"Yes. You too," he replied, seriously.

She stuck her LEP helmet back onto her head and gingerly climbed into the mini-tunnel. Artemis was right—it took her less than fifteen seconds to emerge on the other side and hop into the back of the waiting shuttle.

She immediately gave No1 a quick hug. She wondered how much she should tell him—later on—about what had happened between her and Artemis. He _had _been a big reason she had gone to the future, after all…

"Captain Short," Chix acknowledged, flashing what Holly was sure he thought was a winning smile.

"There'll be time for chit-chat later, Chix. Right now, let's focus on getting Artemis out of there in one piece." Holly probably wouldn't have responded so tersely, except that it was hard to assure her pounding heart that Artemis _had _to get out of this all right.

"I'm coming through," Artemis called through to the trio of fairies waiting on the other side.

Holly could see Artemis climb into the small tunnel—and it was indeed a very tight fit. His shoulders made contact with either side, making it difficult for him to make any forward motion without putting pressure on the tunnel walls. She saw that his jaw was clenched—she didn't remember Artemis ever expressing claustrophobia before, but this experience would be stressful for even someone comfortable in tight spaces.

"For the first time in my life," he grunted, "I wish that I had the ability of a rat to dislocate its shoulder at will." Holly almost cracked a smile. It was just like Artemis to spout off some random scientific fact at a time like this.

Even though the passageway was only a couple of meters thick, his slow progress made it seem as if it were a mile long. Everyone, including Artemis, froze for a few agonizing seconds when a brief, soft cracking noise from above made it seem like it was all over. Nothing ended up happening, though, so with a sigh of relief, Artemis continued on his way.

He was about half a foot away from having his head free of the tunnel when Artemis accidentally shifted a rock above his right shoulder blade when he moved forward a little too quickly—perhaps a little too confident that his ordeal was over. He froze again as an ominous sound moved through the rubble.

"The rocks must be settling," Chix said, feigning calm, but really almost as nervous as Holly and Artemis. "I think it would take something external to cause a collapse at this point, though."

Almost as if the gnome operating the access bay doors to the main horizontal chute to Haven, less than a mile away, had heard Chix's words—and decided to prove him right—a soft reverberation sounded through the chute. Holly immediately whirled on Chix, knowing what the sound was. "Didn't you close off the chute to traffic?"

Chix seemed taken aback. "Well, yeah, but…"

Holly, Chix and No1 turned, almost as one, back towards Artemis. The eyes of all four widened with dismay. The cause of their alarm was the creaking noise of rocks that had been settled just right—until the closing of a metal door reverberated through the bedrock. It was a relatively small disturbance that usually would have had no effect upon the solid rock; however, it was a relatively small disturbance that, today, had just enough force to cause the shifted stone located above Artemis's right shoulder blade to dislodge completely. It was a relatively small disturbance that set off a chain reaction in the perfect, yet fragile, balance of the rubble.

Fast enough that there was nothing to do but watch—yet, slow enough that she felt there should have been something she could have done to stop it—Holly saw the rocks come down on top of Artemis, who had simultaneously tried to propel himself out of the tunnel and protect his head from the rockslide before the rocks had stopped him from making any more movements.

"Artemis!" she called. "Artemis!"

Chix, whatever else Holly might have thought of his abilities, had been quick enough to get to the driver's seat in the shuttle and pull it away from the rock so that all of the loose stones possible could fall to the chute's bottom, miles below.

Fortunately, that left only a few feet of debris covering Artemis. Fortunately—if he was still alive.

It was all Holly could do to wait the two seconds it took for Chix to back the shuttle back to the tunnel opening—which was now mostly exposed, due to the fact that most of the rock was now on its way down to the bottom of the chute. She launched herself at the rock, and was quickly joined by No1 and Chix in digging through rubble. Though the demon and sprite pushed themselves as hard as they could, neither matched the elf's intensity.

_I'm not losing you again, Mud Boy_, she thought, clawing away furiously. _It's im-freaking-possible._

But a small part of her wondered. Was her time travelling a dream or something? Did it really happen? Even if it happened, had something gone wrong? Were Artemis's theories of time travel somehow incorrect? Had she done something that had messed up the chain reaction of events that would lead to her future?

Was it possible that he might not make it?

She forced that part of her, growing stronger with every second that went by with Artemis failing to emerge, to stay silent. She would deal with whatever came…but not until it did come.

For now, all she could do was shout his name, with a voice that grew progressively thick with exertion and the tears that were making it difficult to see.

"I see his hand!" Chix shouted suddenly. Holly was instantly at his side, working on freeing first the limp hand, then the arm, and soon thereafter, the entire torso. It wasn't long before they were able to dislodge him completely. Between all three of them, they were able to drag the unconscious and broken Artemis out as gently as possible, and get him into the shuttle.

When they finally had him on the gurney that had been sent along with the shuttle in case either Holly or Artemis had been injured (and hadn't had enough magic to heal), Holly was able to finally get a look at Artemis, even while she was doubled over with the effort of getting him inside the shuttle.

There was no question but that he was unconscious. Thankfully, his head, while scratched and bleeding in a number of places, looked relatively intact. On the other hand, the rest of him could only be described as completely battered. Holly was suddenly simultaneously nauseous and grateful for Artemis's unconscious state as she noticed a broken bone poking through the flesh of his lower leg, which was bleeding steadily, the blood dripping onto the floor of the shuttle. It appeared from that odd angle that his right arm was also broken, though, thankfully, the break did not penetrate the skin (at least from what she could see with his torn jacket on). Other wounds could be seen, either from the skin itself or by the blood soaking various parts of his white shirt and suit, including a rather large gash across his chest and abdomen.

Holly was just about to feel for a pulse to make sure he was alive—as his condition put that fact in doubt—when No1 jumped into action.

"Holly," he said, brusquely—or at least as brusquely as No1 could ever say anything—"I need you to stand back. I know he looks bad, but I am not letting him go without a fight."

She tried swallowing as she stepped back for a second, but a lump in her throat stopped her attempt. She knew she was no good in helping to heal Artemis—she had used up most of her magic after the explosion, and the rest on the scrapes her knees and elbows had sustained as she had crawled through to the shuttle. Even the rawness of her fingers from digging through the rubble for Artemis went unhealed. But she had to do _something _here. No1 had said he was letting Artemis go without a fight. She couldn't either.

The only thing she could think of to do was to help _Artemis _fight. She didn't know if anything might break through to his unconscious mind, but she needed to try. So she approached the gurney, cradled Artemis's face as gently as possible in her hands, and whispered, "Come on, Arty." She paused, before repeating, quietly and almost rhythmically, "Come on, Arty. Come on. You can't leave me now. You can't. I've seen it—our future. And it's a great one. I promise. We're really happy together. I know, hard to believe, right? But for all of that to happen, you have to keep holding on. So hold on, okay?"

Though she was pretty sure Chix, in the driver's seat gunning the shuttle back to Haven, couldn't hear her whispering, she knew that No1, if he were paying attention, could make out every word she said. But she didn't care if she sounded crazy or weird. What mattered was that Artemis could sense she was near, and that she was desperate for him to make it through.

Even as No1 was hard at work knitting Artemis's bones back together, even as the large gash across his torso was being magically sealed, even as the unseen internal bleeding that Holly didn't even know was happening ceased—all she could do was watch his face, willing him to be all right.

Miraculously, Artemis's eyes opened slightly after No1's work was done. "Holly?" he rasped, with what appeared to be great effort.

The lump was back in Holly's throat, though now for a different reason, as she answered, "I'm here, Arty." She reached her hand out and began gently caressing his black hair, now partially matted with a mixture of blood and dust. "You need to rest."

"Yes," he replied all but inaudibly, and he gave a nod that was nearly imperceptible. His eyes closed again. Holly knew it would be a long while before his eyes opened again, but that things would be okay when they did.

Holly watched his face as he fell asleep, and almost jumped when No1 spoke to her again. She had forgotten he was there.

"It's amazing what magic can do," he said. "I've never a seen a body so broken survive in all my years of healing."

Holly was sincere as she replied. "And thank you for that, No1. If he had died…"

No1 has a curious look on his face. Holly wondered if he would ask about what she had said to Artemis, but instead he said, "You might be wondering what happened with the school and Councillor Judkins."

Holly hadn't got around to such wondering yet. She had been a bit distracted with other matters. But, she nevertheless said, "Yeah, what happened? Are they all okay?"

"Everyone is excellent. The explosives had been remotely disarmed by the time the bomb squad got into the building. All of the kids—as well as the Councillor—were able to leave the school unharmed. And thanks to Artemis's tracking device, LEPretrieval is chasing the kidnapper down as we speak."

"Thanks, No1. I'm glad to hear it. You'll have to tell Artemis as soon as he wakes up."

No1 coughed. "I should tell you, that might not be for a while. I've noticed that often when a healing takes place, people don't take the rest time necessary for the body to fully recover. So…I gave him a little extra 'zing' to keep him knocked out for a while."

"How long?" Holly asked.

"It's hard to judge these things—but we are talking a number of hours. Not days, though," No1 responded.

"Well, I guess that's probably for the best." She couldn't help but reach out and put her hand on the sleeping Artemis's hand as she looked again at his now-peaceful face.

When she turned back to face No1, he again had that inquisitive expression upon his face.

"No1, I get the feeling you have something you want to ask me."

He smiled. "You are very perceptive. I don't want to make you think I'm being nosy, though…"

Holly grinned a bit sheepishly as she said, "I think you've been given as good a reason to be nosy as anyone ever has. You have my permission to ask, if you want."

"Okay…well, when I was healing Artemis I heard you say some…interesting things. Were those things connected at all to what happened when you time travelled a few days ago?"

"Do you promise to tell absolutely no one? Not even Artemis?"

"Of course. It's not my secret to tell."

"All right, well, then…yes. Yes, the things I said were connected to my recent time travelling." It almost felt good to get that in the open.

"So, you and Artemis?" No1 asked, smiling more widely.

Holly shrugged, grinning as well. "Yeah, I guess I'm stuck with him."

"Would you like some advice, Holly?" No1 enquired.

"Sure," she replied.

"You and Artemis might want to find some non-life threatening activities to do as a couple. I know you may feel getting trapped together in a maintenance tunnel with explosives is quality time, but I think that will catch up with you someday." Both demon and elf laughed, but it wasn't the same lighthearted laugh they would have normally had. Each felt utterly worn down, Holly more than No1. It had been a long day. And it wasn't even over yet.

A few minutes later, Chix docked the shuttle at the Police Plaza bay. As soon as the rear hatch of the shuttle was open, Chix pushed the gurney Artemis was lying on—though his comparatively long legs dangled far off the end—out and immediately turned in the direction of the infirmary. Holly and No1 naturally followed.

To get to the infirmary from the shuttle bay, the group had to travel through the Plaza itself, where Butler waited anxiously. As soon as they entered the Plaza, he raced up to them. Seeing Artemis's unconscious body, clothed in a ripped and bloody suit, he looked at Holly almost accusatorily and demanded, "What happened?"

Holly could have snapped back—after all, _she _hadn't planted the bombs, and she had just been under a great deal of stress—but she knew what Butler was feeling. Losing Artemis was his greatest fear. She understood—it was her greatest fear, too.

So, instead, she replied, "It's a long story."

"I've got time."

"Fine. It turned out that this sprite had a score to settle with Artemis and so lured him there to try and kill him after the drop off. She had set some explosives in the maintenance tunnel. But we escaped the worst of the explosions—it was when we were being rescued from the tunnel that another cave-in happened. Thank goodness No1 was there. Artemis is sleeping off the healing now."

Butler merely grunted in response.

When they reached the infirmary, a middle-aged warlock rushed over and ordered that Artemis be moved gently onto a metal plank that was connected to the large diagnostic scanner. Though Butler wasn't accustomed to taking orders from anyone without the surname Fowl, he complied. The plank wasn't long enough for Artemis, so again his legs dangled. The scanner pulled the plank into the machine, pulling Artemis's legs along with it as it went further in, and soon all that was visible of Artemis were his feet.

The scanner did its work, accompanied by various beeps and whirrs and a screen displaying various numbers and graphs. While the scanner was working, No1 explained the nature and extent of the injuries Artemis had suffered. Holly winced as he described some that she hadn't known about.

After a minute, the scanning noises ceased and the plank was pushed out again. The warlock went to the screen and read it, nodding every few seconds. When he was finished, he looked at No1.

"No1, you've done an excellent job. He's perfectly healthy. Just needs rest now—a lot of rest. And it would be best if he could do so at home. We don't have any…er…beds big enough for human patients, and it would be ideal if he could recuperate in a setting more comfortable for him."

"Done," Holly said. And it was. Almost as soon as they had arrived in Haven, they were back in a shuttle, this time with Butler taking the place of No1 and Chix. Holly took the pilot's seat and tasked Butler with keeping watch over Artemis. She knew she didn't need to tell him to do so—he wouldn't be taking his eyes off Artemis for a very long time after what had happened today.

**Author's Note: **only a few more chapters to go. Thanks for sticking around thusfar!


	12. More Convincing

Even after the trip to the surface, Artemis was still asleep. He had stirred a few times, but had never really woken up as the shuttle sped through the chute towards Tara. When they emerged from the shuttle port into the dark of the very early morning, the surrounding countryside still mostly dark, Holly had to immediately shield (No1 had given her a "re-fill" of magic before she had left Haven again). Both she and Butler had agreed that hooking Artemis to a moon belt and flying him back to Fowl Manor might not be the best thing for someone recovering from the brink of death, so as soon as Butler had cell reception, he had called for a taxi to meet them a safe distance from the Tara entrance. Butler would, of course, be giving the driver a very generous tip to refrain from mentioning to anyone else the worse-for-wear appearance of his young charge.

As Holly flew over the rolling hills, she was filled with a confusing mixture of emotions: relief that Artemis had survived; giddiness that she and Artemis had finally been open about their feelings for each other; exhaustion from the ordeal through which they had passed today; and dread at what Mrs Fowl would say when she saw the condition of her son.

She arrived at Fowl Manor about fifteen minutes before the taxi. Shielded, she watched as Butler carried Artemis out of the car and up the front steps to Fowl Manor. She slipped in the house behind Butler and waited until the door was closed before she unshielded. Butler continued to carry the comatose Artemis up the stairs, and headed down the hallway towards his bedroom, Holly following him all the way.

Holly's fears came true when Mrs Fowl, hearing the movement in the hallway, came out of her room in a terry cloth robe, clearly having been awoken by the trio's arrival, to investigate just as Butler was passing with Artemis. Holly cringed as Angeline's eyes widened with shock and her face went as pale as a ghost. "What happened?" Angeline gasped, and she hurried after Butler as he continued on his way to Artemis's room.

Butler remained silent—Holly knew it filled him with shame to be bringing Artemis home in this state—so Holly thought it best if she jumped in. "Mrs Fowl, Artemis is fine—he's been completely healed. He's just sleeping it off now."

Angeline turned to Holly "But what _happened_?" Butler had now closed the bedroom door, leaving the two women outside. Holly assumed this was to allow Butler to get Artemis out of his torn and bloody Armani suit.

Holly hesitated. She didn't want to cause the poor woman to faint, so she decided to focus on the positive. "Artemis just helped us save an entire school full of fairy children. He did an amazing job. Things just didn't go quite according to plan." She knew it sounded lame, especially when they had both seen the state of Artemis's clothes. While there may not have been physical wounds left, the amount of blood indicated that it hadn't been minor scrapes he had suffered.

Angeline groaned. "Why does trouble follow Artemis everywhere he goes?"

Holly felt like telling her the truth—it seemed more like Artemis was the one following trouble. But instead, she chose to try to reassure Angeline. "Mrs Fowl, like I said, he's been healed up and given the all-clear by our…uh…doctors. He just needs to sleep for awhile for his body to fully recover from the energy it took to heal so quickly." She paused. "Mrs Fowl—would it be okay…would it be okay if I stick around until he wakes up? He was starting to get restless towards the end of the shuttle ride, so it shouldn't be long now."

Angeline seemed momentarily taken aback. She must have sensed that change in Holly's tone that was happening so often now. "Yes, of course, dear. Stay as long as you like," she replied.

The door opened and Holly let Angeline be the first to rush into Artemis's room. When Holly entered, she saw that Butler had indeed changed Artemis into a pair of blue silk pyjamas. With the bloody suit presumably stashed somewhere out of the sight of Angeline, Artemis no longer looked as if he had been put in a tiger's cage—he simply looked asleep.

As the three waited for Artemis to re-awaken, Holly, sitting at the foot of Artemis's bed, told the story of what had happened—highly edited, of course. She didn't think it necessary to dwell on the parts where Artemis got hurt (for poor Mrs Fowl's sake), and she obviously wasn't going to tell _anyone_ about the little 'chat' she and Artemis had had (for her own sake).

"Mrs Fowl," she said. "I promise you that Butler was very against Artemis going to the ransom drop-off without him. But it would have compromised the entire mission if Butler had come—so he was forced to stay behind. And in the end, even if he had been there, Artemis would most likely still have been injured. So please don't blame Butler for any of this." Holly glanced quickly at Butler. He seemed a bit mollified.

"I'll still be giving him an earful when he wakes up," Butler growled.

As if he could hear Butler's remark, Artemis stirred. His eyes opened slowly, blinked a few times, and then, noticing the small group watching him, he seemed to be almost jolted back to reality. Sitting up quickly, he closed his eyes and groaned at what must have been quite the head rush.

When he had recovered, he looked at Holly. "Are you all right?"

Nodding, she replied, "Yeah. How do _you_ feel?"

"A bit like I've been grappling with a troll." He paused, then gave a wry smile. "Though it wouldn't be the first time, I suppose." Turning to Butler, he said, "I expect you are upset with me for yet again putting myself outside of your protection by going to the drop-off site without you. Can you ever forgive me, old friend?"

Butler stood silently for a moment before giving a grunt, and saying "Yes, Artemis—but next time you do a mission without me, at least let me sweep the location for explosives first."

Artemis gave a short laugh. "Yes, I think I can agree to that condition." Turning next to his mother, his face turned sheepish. "I am very sorry for returning home in this state, Mother. I know your mind still assumes the worst after all I have put you through. I can assure you, I am not _trying_ to get myself killed."

Angeline sighed. "I can't be too mad at you when you've done such a good thing, Arty." At this, Holly gave Artemis a pointed look, trying to say, _See, she thinks you're a good person, too_. To Holly's surprise, he answered her glance with a momentary frown before looking back at his mother.

"But dear," Angeline continued, "I would appreciate it if you wouldn't get involved in such dangerous activities. Most mothers worry about their 23-year-old sons going skydiving or bungee jumping. _I _have to worry about you chasing after terrorists underground and nearly getting yourself blown up!" She shook her head, exasperated—but even so, she had almost a smile on her face as she said, "Just please, _try_ to be more careful, Arty!"

"I will, Mother. I promise," Artemis replied, trying to hold back a smile of his own. Then, he turned his blue eyes on Holly, and he suddenly grew serious again. Looking back at Butler and his mother, he cleared his throat and said, politely, "Would the two of you be so kind as to give Holly and I a moment alone?"

Butler and Angeline both appeared surprised at Artemis's request. Angeline looked at Holly, then back at Artemis. "Of course, dear. I'll just be in my room down the hall. Call me if you need anything." And she and Butler stepped out, Holly and Artemis watching them go.

When the door had closed behind them, Holly and Artemis both turned to look at each other again. "So," Holly said simply.

"Yes," Artemis replied, equally shortly, hesitating as if he didn't know how to continue. Eventually he seemed to find his words, however, and he went on. "Obviously, we both now know our respective…er…opinions of each other. And I must confess, I had never felt quite so happy about anything in my life as I did in that moment."

Holly smiled. "I felt pretty happy,too."

To Holly's surprise, Artemis furrowed his brow and appeared troubled. "On the other hand, I just don't think we can realistically be together."

Holly was taken aback. This was a complete one-eighty. "What do you mean?"

Artemis's brow was still furrowed and he was frowning at his duvet. "When you were crawling through the tunnel, and then as I came after—before the collapse, of course—I thought more about what had happened between us. And my reflections led me to the realization that if we got together, it would be one more instance of Artemis Fowl hurting someone else to make himself happy. It would be incredibly selfish."

"How do you figure?" Holly asked, incredulous, and a little annoyed. _He gets a conscience _now_? _she thought.

He exhaled quickly. "There are clear obstacles to this relationship, Holly. You _must _see that. You are an elf. I am a human. I am going to become an old man and die before you've even reached middle age. If things ever progressed to the point where we wanted to have children together, there's no guarantee that would be possible—I haven't yet had the opportunity to fully study the relationship between human and elf DNA. And there is a reason why fairies call humans 'Mud People'. They are not particularly fond of us as a species. I can't help but think that you would face a great stigma associating yourself with me in such a way. I cannot do that to you. I _must_ cease this kind of destructive behaviour."

Holly closed her eyes to think for a moment. What had the Artemis of the future said to her? _"Just be patient with me when you arrive back in the past. That Artemis cares for you deeply, but has not yet allowed himself to see past the apparent impediments to any relationship with you…If you can give him a few reasons to hope otherwise, the rest of his resistance will crumble."_

Though she had experienced doubt as Artemis had seemingly faced certain death in the cave-in, after Artemis's miraculous recovery, she was confident that things would end up as she had seen them in her future. Now she needed to impart some of that confidence to Artemis.

So, she said, simply, "Arty, we're going to figure all of that out."

His short, bitter laugh came out almost like a bark.

"No," she continued, voice firm and unshakeable. "We will. You and Foaly are two of the smartest beings to have ever lived—don't tell him I said that, though—and if you work together, you'll figure out the aging thing. I'll haul you over to No1 for a magical transfusion every day if I have to. As for kids, I'm willing to take that risk—lots of couples can't have kids for one reason or another, but that doesn't mean they can't be together. And the stigma? Believe me, as the only female LEP officer in history, I can _deal_ with stigma and stupid remarks from stupid people. I've had to deal with that old boys' club for years. Besides, you aren't any ordinary Mud Man. I think you'd find that most of the People have a great respect for you. Look at what you did for them today—you saved their children. Not many fairies are going to complain about having you on our side. So, I repeat—we _will_ figure this out. But we can't if you don't give it a chance."

Artemis surveyed her through narrowed, almost suspicious eyes. "How can you be so confident? You said in the cave that you, too, had been hopeless of anything ever happening between us. What changed?"

She looked him straight in the eyes, and cradled his face in her hands, bringing it to hers. He gave no resistance, which gave Holly hope. It was much nicer kissing Artemis here than in a dingy, rubble-filled cave.

When she pulled away, she asked, almost in a whisper, "How do you feel?"

Artemis was looking right back into Holly's eyes, and his voice sounded a bit dazed as he replied, "As if anything was possible."

He had got the message. Holly responded, "And so it is. At least with _you_—as you've proven time and time again."

Artemis smiled and gave another short laugh. "Well, I suppose that if I can find a way to come back from the death, simply slowing my aging and extending my lifespan shouldn't prove too difficult. In fact, I might have a few theories of why fairies live so—"

Holly had seen his face change from an expression of affection to one of planning and scheming, so she had taken the liberty of cutting him off with a kiss. It wasn't that she didn't want him to develop those theories—she just thought he could save those for another day.


	13. Days Ahead

Holly stayed for an early breakfast. It was just Butler, Mrs Fowl, Artemis and Holly—Artemis Sr. had taken Beckett and Myles for a hiking trip in the Mourne Mountains the previous day—but Holly was okay with the smaller group.

Butler and Mrs Fowl seemed to notice Artemis's extraordinarily good mood. As they were finishing up the fresh fruit Butler had served, Angeline observed, "Arty, you seem happy—happier than when Butler and I last saw you before breakfast."

Artemis suddenly looked a bit uneasy—embarrassed even. Holly knew how he felt. Neither of them were much for talking about _feelings_—and they had done more of that in the past twenty-four hours than they probably had in their entire lives. But, at the same time, Holly knew they would have to tell people eventually. So when Artemis looked at her, a question in his expression, she merely smiled and shrugged, as if to say, "Go ahead."

He turned back to Butler and Angeline, who were sitting across the long dining table. "Yes, I daresay I probably do."

"Any particular reason?" Angeline prodded.

Holly was amused as Artemis's face turned a bright red, and he cleared his throat. "Well," he spluttered, not his usual calm and collected self, "I, uh, that is to say, Holly and I have, um, decided to become a…a..."

"Couple," Holly supplied, rolling her eyes.

Butler and Angeline reacted very differently, yet simulaneously. Butler merely grunted and said, "It's about time," though he was smiling as he said it. Angeline gasped and clapped her hands, and it seemed from the jubilent expression upon her face that her heart might have almost burst with happiness. "Oh, that's just wonderful!" she cried out joyfully. "I knew there must have been something between the two of you," she laughed. "Arty never showed any interest in the girls I tried to set him up with. I knew there must be someone else—and I hoped it was you!"

Holly was taken aback. "You _hoped_ it was me?" Not many human parents really wished for their children to end up in a relationship with an elf—though, to be fair, not many human parents knew that elves were real.

"Yes," Angeline replied, her hands still clasped. "You are about the only non-scientific thing that Arty ever talks about. And he talks about you a lot."

"Mother," Artemis protested warningly, a deeper shade of red than before.

Holly snickered. "You'll have to tell me all about what he says about me. I may need to correct some misconceptions."

"I assure you," Angeline responded, "it's all good."

"I think the last thing Captain Short needs before heading back to Haven is a head that won't fit through the door of her shuttle," Artemis muttered, though he was smiling.

Holly looked at him affectionately, reveling in the fact that she was now allowed to. She was about to make some retort when the com device on her wrist beeped. "Sorry," she said to the others, and pushed the answer button.

It was Trouble. A six-inch three-dimensional holographic projection flickered into existence above her wrist. "Captain Short, have you returned Fowl and his bodyguard to the surface?"

"Yes, Trouble," Holly replied, glad that he couldn't see the breakfast plate she had just emptied. She knew he would scold her for eating on the job.

"All right, get back down here quick. I need you to attend a debriefing and then help prep for the press conference that's been called."

"I don't have to _be _at the press conference, do I?"

"Of course you do. Judkins is insisting on it."

"Great," Holly grumbled, some of her good mood evaporating.

"And tell Fowl his cheque is in the mail. I'd better see you soon, Holly. No lollygagging up on the surface, especially in the daylight."

"Yes, sir," she replied. And with that, Trouble's image vanished. _Lollygagging?_ she thought. _Really?_ She looked around at the others sitting at the table, who had all been observing her conversation with the Commander. "Well, it looks like I have to go."

"Of course," Angeline said. "But do come back and visit soon. The twins and my husband will be so sorry to have missed you. And, obviously, I'm sure Arty will be missing you as soon as you leave."

Artemis, whose face had returned to its normal pallor, flushed red again. "I will see you to the door, Holly."

"See you, Mrs Fowl. And Butler, I'll see you next time the LEP needs some help, I guess!"

"Which shouldn't be long," Butler joked.

"Ouch," Holly said, but she was grinning.

She and Artemis left the dining room and walked slowly through the grand hallway into the even grander entryway. It was going to be harder to leave him now than ever before.

They stood a bit awkwardly by the door for a moment, neither sure what to say, both a bit lost in thought. Holly ended up breaking the silence by saying, "Crazy couple of days, wasn't it?"

"Yes, I think that's a fair description," Artemis replied with a wry smile.

She decided she might as well be honest. "I'll miss you, Arty. Though I do take great pride in the LEP's competence, I hope it needs your help again in the near future."

"And I daresay it will," he joked. "But I will see you soon regardless."

Holly was puzzled. "Why?"

"Have you forgotten? I need to buy myself a house down in Haven, don't I?"

A wide grin formed on Holly's face. "That's right. And I need to help you look, I guess."

"Naturally. We can discuss the specifics later, though. I know you have to go—and I'd hate for you to face another internal affairs inquiry on my account."

Holly grimaced. "I know. You've already put me in enough hot water with the Commander."

Artemis turned serious, even a bit wistful as the moment of Holly's departure drew nearer. Holly was feeling the same thing.

"Well," Holly ventured. "Until next time, I guess…I…I love you, Artemis Fowl."

Artemis's face reddened yet again, but the smile on his face told Holly he was pleased. "And you as well, Holly."

The wide stone base of the nearest wall formed a kind of step which provided Holly with just enough height when she stood on it. Artemis didn't have to lean down as far as he took her face in his hands and kissed her. She then put her wings and helmet back on, and was invisible by the time Artemis opened the door to let her out of the house.

Holly's debriefing with the Commander and the press conference thereafter went by in a complete blur. Though Holly hated press conferences, she needed only to remember that she and Artemis were now together to give her spirits a lift. By the time it was all over, however, she was exhausted. When she returned home to her little apartment, she didn't even have the energy to eat anything—though she was starving—before she collapsed on her bed and slept straight through to the next day.

* * *

A couple of weeks had gone by since the Mortilla incident. Holly was back to the routine chasing of smugglers and other rogue fairies on the lam—though things were far from "back to normal" for her. In fact, she knew her life had pretty much changed forever. She and Artemis kept in contact daily, either by email or video calls, and she had never been happier.

She had stopped in at Foaly's control booth to ask about a glitch in her helmet's microphone when the centaur observed, "You know, Holly, you've been in a consistently good mood ever since you got back from that kidnapping schmozzle."

Holly knew it would be stupid to deny it. "Yeah, I guess I have been." She paused, thinking of how best to explain herself. An idea struck her. "I have a couple of vacation days coming up."

"Oh," Foaly said. "That would put me in a good mood, too—where are you going?"

"Just sticking around here." She wondered how much to reveal, and then decided she might as well just be out with it. "Artemis is coming down to look for a house."

Foaly raised his eyebrows.

"You seem surprised—but I can tell you that when they were down here last, Artemis and Butler had their last straw with the fairy-sized beds they had to sleep on," Holly noted, mentally steeling herself for what she knew was moments away, given the direction the conversation was headed.

"I'm not so surprised that he's investing in real estate," Foaly replied. "I'm a little more interested in the fact that you are taking vacation days as a result."

"Well, I'm helping him look, okay?"

Holly knew being nosy was a kind of compulsion with Foaly, so she braced herself for the next question.

"Why? I've seen your apartment—_I _wouldn't trust you with giving me advice on buying a house. You have the most hideous baseboards I've ever seen." He shuddered. Holly hoped he might now be distracted with his disgust at her living quarters. She was wrong.

"But seriously, what help does Mud Boy think you're going to be?"

"I'm not really _helping _him, per se…"

"Come on, Holly. Out with it. You're beating around some kind of bush."

"Fine," she said, shortly, looking anywhere but at Foaly's face. "I'm going house-hunting with him because…we're kind of…dating now."

Silence.

Holly chanced a look at Foaly. He was staring at her, a blank expression on his face. "You can say something, you know," Holly muttered.

Foaly obeyed. "Are you serious?"

"Yeeeep," she replied, drawing out the word. "We're together now."

"You _do_ remember that he kidnapped you, right? And held you in a cell in his basement?"

"No, I'd completely forgotten about that," Holly retorted sarcastically.

Foaly shook his head, a smile forming on his face. "Well, this just takes the Stockholm Syndrome to a whole new level, doesn't it?"

There was another brief moment of silence, then the two friends burst out laughing together. "Yeah, I guess it does," Holly admitted.

* * *

As promised, Artemis and Butler came to Haven when Holly's vacation days arrived. Holly wasn't, strictly speaking, allowed to meet them on the surface. This wasn't an LEP mission, and she didn't have a surface visa. But she met them at the Tara shuttleport. She and Artemis greeted each other warmly, but neither were very big on public displays of affection, especially in a crowded shuttleport and with Butler standing nearby. Holly made a mental note to give Artemis a proper hello when they had a moment alone.

To Holly's no great surprise, houses that would allow for human-sized residents—particularly Butler-sized residents—were in short supply in Haven. Thus, the options were few. Thankfully, however, there were always wealthy fairies who would demonstrate their largesse by having large homes. Holly also wasn't surprised that none of the larger houses that _were _for sale did not meet with Artemis's exacting standards. One didn't have enough rooms—he required, in addition to a master bedroom and guest room (for Butler), a study, a lab, a music room, a control room for the surveillance system he intended to set up, and a couple of extra rooms just in case he ever needed them. Another had high enough ceilings, but the doorframes were still too low—Butler had to stoop every time they walked into a new room.

The trio (led by an elfin real estate agent) pulled up to the last house on the list for their first day of searching. If this one was a dud, they would continue to look the next day. Upon alighting from the vehicle and seeing the place, however, Holly knew another day of looking would not be necessary.

This was the house Holly had seen in her future. It was going to be the home she shared with Artemis, and where they would raise little Charlie. It was going to be the place where she woke up in the morning and where she fell asleep at night. She was going to eat meals, watch TV, and do thousands of other things here. And while all of the prospect may have sounded mundane to anyone else, it thrilled Holly—knowing it would all be done with Artemis.

She couldn't help but watch Artemis closely as they navigated the home. He made no critical comments, except for pointing out the odd nick in the corner of a wall, or a chip in one of the tiles on the floor. His attention to detail both astounded and annoyed Holly.

After ending up back in the front entryway, Artemis took another long look around, and took a deep breath. "Ms Ralkin," he said, addressing the real estate agent, "pending a surveyor's report and an inspection by an accredited home inspection agency, this is the house I want."

Evie Ralkin's face lit up. "Excellent, Mr Fowl. I'll arrange everything!" She excitedly pulled out a tablet device and started writing information down.

As she did so, Artemis turned to Holly and smiled. Holly asked, "So, why'd you pick this place?"

"Besides the fact that it appears from my visual examination to be in better condition and of better quality construction than the others at which we have looked, it just…seems like the right place," he grimaced. "Listen to me. You've turned me sentimental."

Holly knew what he meant. She had said certain things in her conversations over the phone with him over the past few weeks that would have caused her to slap herself had she even thought of saying them two months ago.

"Yeah, but don't worry. I won't make fun of you for it," she said, winking at him.

* * *

Holly awoke with a start when the commercial passenger shuttle docked at the Tara shuttleport. She had managed, after what had seemed like a tree's worth of paperwork, to get a surface visa to visit to visit Artemis and his family for Easter. Although she wasn't technically visiting _Artemis_, as he now spent most of his time in Haven. He, however, had come ahead to the surface about a week earlier.

Almost a year had passed since the hostage-taking and all that it had entailed. Ten-and-a-half months, in fact. Holly was starting to wonder when Artemis would propose. It wasn't that Holly would need a ton of time to plan the wedding—she had never been one of those girls who had dreamed of and planned every little detail of her wedding since childhood—but if they wanted to book something decent, she would need at least _some_ advanced warning.

But her wondering was soon to be at an end.

Artemis was leaning against his parent's black luxury sedan near the hidden mouth of the shuttleport when Holly emerged. A grin split his face, though they didn't rush to kiss each other hello—both were conscious of the other tourists filtering out of the shuttleport after going through customs. They did embrace and Artemis held her hand as he walked her to the car. He opened the door for her and then walked around the car to climb into the driver's seat. She almost protested that she was completely capable of opening a door for herself, but then decided to let it go—Artemis was very hung up on following such chivalrous notions. As much as it half-irritated her, she also kind of liked his attentiveness.

"Driving yourself now? Where's Butler?" Holly asked jokingly when he had closed the door behind him.

"Please Holly. I've been flying planes since I was eight," he drawled. But the smile remained on his face, and now that they were safely enclosed by tinted windows, he leaned across and they kissed.

Supper was delicious, with a special vegan meal prepared for Holly. Though she had liked his family ever since she had become acquainted with them years ago, she absolutely adored them now. Myles and Beckett were now _her _little brothers. Angeline treated Holly with a mixture of motherliness and friendship. Artemis Sr often said she was the daughter he had never had. She knew this was her family now, especially having lost her own parents long ago.

After dessert, Artemis pushed his chair away from the table. He had seemed a bit nervous throughout supper, Holly had noticed. He cleared his throat and turned to her. "Holly, I wonder if you might join me on a walk around the estate?"

"Sure," she replied. "I want to get all the fresh air I can while I'm up here."

Beckett piped up. "I'll come, too!"

Angeline quickly broke in, saying, "No, Beckett. I need you to help me with something here." And even while Beckett groaned, Holly could have sworn that she saw Angeline wink in Artemis's direction. Looking at Artemis, he appeared to be pretending not to have noticed—though his face had a pinkish tinge.

The evening air was cool, but not unpleasantly so, as Holly and Artemis took their walk out of Fowl Manor and over a well-manicured green field. Soon the neatly trimmed lawn gave way to wilder terrain, which sloped gently upwards as they strolled. At times they talked—of everything and nothing—and at times remained silent, just enjoying each other's presence.

Holly became conscious that Artemis seemed to have a destination in mind for their walk when she saw a stone bench perched at the crest of the hill she didn't even realize they had been climbing. When they reached the top of the hill, Artemis gestured to the bench, and Holly sat. The hill was high enough to give them a breath-taking view of Fowl Manor and the surrounding estates and countryside. Even Dublin's lights were visible as the land slowly darkened.

Artemis sat close beside her and drew her even nearer by putting his arm around her. The sunset painted the landscape with brilliant colours, and Holly thought that she could be happy here, with Artemis, forever.

For a few minutes, each were lost in their own thoughts as they gazed out at the picturesque scenery. Then, to Holly's consternation, Artemis dropped his arm. She was placated, however, when he used his now-free hand to take hers. He half-turned so he was facing her. "I must confess something, Holly," he said in a low voice, smiling. "I didn't propose a walk just for the sake of fresh air and exercise. In fact, I rather intentionally lured you up here."

Holly gave a soft laugh. "Should I be expecting Butler to come out of nowhere and throw me in a sack?"

Artemis chuckled. "No, I think it would be difficult to hide Butler anywhere around here." He paused, and his smile vanished. His eyes fell to Holly's leg, where her hand entwined in Artemis's was resting. He began absently rubbing gentle circles on her hand with his thumb. He seemed to be steeling himself for something. Holly waited.

After taking a deep breath, he finally began. "The truth is, Holly, I've always been able to come up with a plan for every situation. I can easily outperform any trained actuary. I can determine the probability of success of any endeavour within half a percentage point. But…" he hesitated. "But since you've been a part of my life, it has been much more difficult to predict the future." He smiled. "You don't exactly like following the rules," he jokingly chided.

She shrugged, grinning, but remained silent. She knew what was coming next.

"Strangely, however," he continued, "this unpredictability doesn't bother me. With you, I can't calculate any probabilities; I can't postulate any theories. All I know is that…is that whatever comes in that uncertain future, I want to be with you." He stopped talking and reached into his pocket, pulling out a small, velvet box. He left the bench and got down on one knee, surprisingly heedless of the slightly wet grass.

Opening the box, Holly saw what was perhaps the most beautiful emerald ring she had ever seen. She was initially impressed that Artemis knew that fairies traditionally used emerald rings instead of diamond rings as symbols of engagement—but then she realized that of course Artemis would have paid attention to even a detail such as that.

"Captain Holly Short," Artemis said clearly, though with a nervous edge to his voice, "would you do me the great honour of marrying me?"

Holly was about to open her mouth to give a resounding "yes", when Artemis suddenly spoke again, anxiety clearly evident now. "I know we haven't been together very long, so if you want to wait that's perfectly reasonable…but I thought that since we have been such close friends for a—"

Holly knew she had to put a stop to his insecure rambling so she interrupted his stream of words with a kiss—a kiss she knew would put all doubt of where she stood in relation to his proposal out of his mind.

There was no doubt in Holly's mind as to what answer she would give. _After all_, she thought with a smile_, I know it's going to happen anyways._


	14. Epilogue

_Five years later_

After Artemis had put Charlie to bed, he joined Holly in their room. "Holly, I need to tell you something," he said, sitting down on the bed.

Holly was a bit surprised, but nodded. "Sure, what's up?" She was suddenly a bit uneasy, seeing the enigmatic expression upon Artemis's face.

"I had a visitor today whilst you were at work."

"Oh?" Holly replied, not sure where this was going.

"Yes. We had quite the interesting conversation."

"And who was this visitor?"

"A young, beautiful LEP captain. You might remember her."

Holly was about to ask Artemis just what he had been doing with another woman when the penny dropped like an anvil.

"Oh. Right," she said, the smile returning to her face. "Was that today?"

Artemis smiled, too. "It certainly was. Though I'm not surprised you didn't remember it."

"I would've remembered talking to my future self if I had."

"Precisely. But the conversation _was _interesting. Now I know exactly why you were so confident in the beginning. You had read the end of the book first."

"Well, I hope today is not the _end_," she replied. "But yeah, I guess I did." She paused. "Does it make you feel like less of a genius that you didn't figure out I had seen our future lives before we got together?"

"No. If anything, I feel like _more _of a genius."

Holly was intrigued. "Why is that?"

"Because I was intelligent enough to take a chance that you might be right, even when I had no solid evidence to back up your assertions…at least to my knowledge at the time."

Holly sat down beside him and took his hand. "And I've been right about everything ever since."

Artemis laughed. "Though I am sorely tempted, I won't respond to that rather over-confident statement."

"That's probably the right decision."

The smile remained on Artemis's face, but his eyes became serious. "Holly, I told her—you—that we are happy. That we don't regret the choice we made to be together. And that's how I feel, truly. Is that the case for you as well?"

"It is. I am _very _happy Artemis. And you are the biggest part of that."

His smile turned smug. "Of course. I _am _Artemis Fowl, after all."

**Author's Note: **well, everyone, that's the end. Thank you so much for reading, and thank you so much for the reviews! You've been great. And I hope you have enjoyed reading the story even a quarter of how much I enjoyed writing it! Feel free to leave a final review if you'd like.


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